World Institute for Development Economics Research

About: World Institute for Development Economics Research is a facility organization based out in Helsinki, Finland. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Poverty & Population. The organization has 110 authors who have published 525 publications receiving 17316 citations.

Measuring quality of health-care services: what is known and where are the gaps?

Abstract: The United Nations sustainable development goal (SDG) 3 seeks "to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all and at all ages" (1) To build healthcare systems that were able to progress towards the millennium development goals, many countries had to extend delivery systems to increase coverage They also greatly improved measurement of people's contacts with the health system However, with the reduction in disease burden due to specific infectious diseases and childhood illnesses, people tend to live longer, have multiple noncommunicable diseases and require more complex services The focus on measuring access is not sufficient to capture whether people receive effective care; hence this month's papers on measurement of quality of care in low- and middle-income countries In papers published online and in this issue, Akachi et al explain why the quality of health-care services in low-and middle-income countries has been largely overlooked as an important contributor to health outcomes (2) Sharma et al observe the management of childbirth at public and private hospitals in Uttar Pradesh, India and conclude that care provided to women and their newborns is of poor quality (3) Brenner et al study the effects of a results-based financing scheme in Malawi and find improved equipment and supplies at health facilities but minimal effects on clinical performance (4) In Ethiopia, Canavan et al measure the quality of intrapartum care in hospitals using data from medical chart reviews and direct observations (5) Knowlton et al do a multinational survey of 120 hospitals and find that many lack the basic infrastructure needed to provide essential surgical care on a consistent basis (6) Lazzerini et al find that in Kyrgyzstan--a setting with high rates of hospitalization, over-diagnosis and over-treatment--brief training and supportive supervision by paediatricians improve quality of paediatric care in hospitals (7) Examining variation in quality is one way to diagnose drivers of good or poor performance Kruk et al find that the quality of antenatal and paediatric care in seven African countries varies greatly and that this variation may result from the different approaches governments take in training providers and funding and organizing their health systems (8) Other articles in this issue present innovations in measures and instruments to assess quality of health-care services Bedoya et al document compliance with infection prevention and control measures during outpatient visits in Kenya (9) Wang et al show how medical malpractice litigation records can be used as a source of data to assess patients' experience and their health outcomes in China (10) Madaj et al assess the validity of the World Health Organization's indicators for quality of care around the time of birth (11) Despite the wide range of research presented in this issue, several aspects of health-care quality are not addressed …

Urban Poverty in China and its Contributing Factors 1986-2000

Abstract: Food price increases and the introduction of radical social welfare and enterprise reforms during the 1990s generated significant changes in the lives of urban households in China. During this period urban poverty increased considerably. This paper uses household level data from 1986 to 2000 to examine what determines whether households fall below the poverty line over this period and investigates how the impact of these determinants has changed through time. We find that large households and households with more nonworking members are more likely to be poor, suggesting that perhaps the change from the old implicit price subsidies, based on household size, to an explicit income subsidy, based on employment, has worsened the position of large families. Further investigation into regional poverty variation indicates that over the 1986–93 period food price increases were also a major contributing factor. Between 1994 and 2000 the worsening of the economic situation of state sector employees contributed to the poverty increase.

Measuring Vulnerability: An Overview and Introduction

Abstract: This paper provides an introduction to this special issue of Oxford Development Studies. It starts by contextualizing the measurement of vulnerability, pointing to the need to take risks on the level of households, regions and countries into account in designing poverty-reduction strategies. It then summarizes the papers in this special issue, highlighting the ways in which they advance the conceptualization and measurement of vulnerability, and noting directions for future research.

Explaining the Evolution of Poverty: The Case of Mozambique

Abstract: We provide a comprehensive approach for analyzing the evolution of poverty using Mozambique as a case study. Bringing together data from disparate sources, we develop a novel "back-casting" framework that links a dynamic computable general equilibrium model to a micro-simulation poverty module. This framework provides a new approach to explaining and decomposing the evolution of poverty, as well as to examining rigorously the coherence between poverty, economic growth, and inequality outcomes. Finally, various simple but useful and rarely-applied approaches to considering regional changes in poverty rates are presented. Copyright 2012, Oxford University Press.