Social Science and Social Policy: The National Dilemmas

I. Social Science and Social Policy: The National Dilemmas

Social science has had an ambiguous relationship with social policy throughout its history. When the term and concept of social science first began to be used in the middle of the nineteenth century, the initial organizations that emerged to promote social science were not located in the universities but in the public sphere. They brought together not only scholars but persons active in the political arena, clergy men, and business people, and the primary objective of these associations was to promote reform, that is, what they considered to be more adequate social policies to ameliorate what they designated as social problems. The social problems of which they spoke were for the most part those associated with the expanding urban centres and the newly-emerging manufacturing sector of the economy. These associations felt that accumulating various kinds of data on these issues, usually statistical data, would illuminate the directions in which the State might proceed, by means of various new policies/reforms, to alleviate the ills that these associations perceived.

Bridges - the Israeli Palestinian Health Magazine - A World Health Orginization Publication

Health as a Social Goal : Interview with Timothy Evans .

By Shiri Qurian

Can the health sector influence poverty? If so, how? What poli¬cy measures should be avoided in order to reduce poverty?

The health sector has multiple influences on poverty and well-being. The predominant form of financing health care is out-of-pock¬et payments and point of services which is the most regressive form of financing health care. We know that about 100 million people worldwide are impoverished annually due to this form of health care. That’s just looking at direct cost. Indirect costs relate to loss of income due to loss of work and added transport costs.

The converse is also true. When you improve people's health, the welfare and wealth generated is improved. Improving health leads to more wealth. How can you avoid impoverishing? First, is to move towards more progressive health care financing systems and minimizing out-of-pocket payments. Any form of pooling and pre-payment is better than simply allowing for individuals to pay for their health. Second, is to look for ways to minimize the indirect cost of illness such as mechanisms which offset the cost of missed work and access to care (e.g. transport costs and unemployment insurance benefits). There are ways to off put these indirect costs which wouldn't necessarily be covered under health insurance programs. Third, is to prevent people from getting sick. So, health promotion programs are very important in that regard. Eating better, exercising and not being exposed to toxic agents keep us from entering the vicious downward spiral of poor health and wealth.

Wherever there are more compre¬hensive health insurance and univer¬sal access programs, there are fewer impoverishing consequences. Even in countries where there is health insurance, there can still be impov¬erishing expenditures in health. But it decreases the likelihood. A good part of this evidence comes from child health programs which most¬ly are universally accessible and are delivered free at the point of service. We see that impoverishment associ¬ated with the illness of children in those studies is much less likely.

Globalization, Poverty, Inequality, and Insecurity

rp2005-33.pdf (application/pdf Object)
Globalization, Poverty, Inequality, and Insecurity
Some Insights from the Economics of Happiness
Carol Graham*
June 2005
Abstract
The literature on the economics of happiness in the developed economies finds discrepancies between reported measures of wellbeing and income measures. The ‘Easterlin paradox’, for example, shows that average happiness levels do not increase as countries grow wealthier. This article explores how the economics of happiness can help explain gaps between standard measures of poverty and inequality and reported assessments of welfare in countries in the process of integrating into the global economy. Most prominent among these discrepancies is that between economists’ assessments of the benefits of globalization for the poor and those made by the general public. Survey research often highlights phenomena that are not typically captured by money metric measures, such as vulnerability to poverty among the near poor and distributional shifts at the local, cohort, and sector level. The article posits that the gaps between income measures and reported wellbeing may matter to development outcomes, based on evidence from the author’s research on reported wellbeing in Latin America and Russia.

Internet for Social Statistics

Internet for Social Statistics
Description: Internet for Social Statistics is a free 'teach yourself' tutorial on the Web, teaching Internet information skills for social statistics. The tutorial is aimed at students lecturers and researchers who want to improve their knowledge of the best Internet resources for this subject. It takes around an hour to do and includes quizzes and interactive exercises. There are also 'Resources for Trainers' to support the use of the tutorial by librarians and lecturers who teach Internet Literacy. It's been written by Robin Rice of the Edinburgh University Data Library, and is one of a set of tutorials within the Resource Discovery Network's (RDN) Virtual Training Suite.
Keywords: social statistics, Internet information skills training, information literacy, information skills, statistics
Subject Section(s): Statistics Quantitative Methods
Resource Type: Educational Materials
Language: en
URL: http://www.vts.rdn.ac.uk/tutorial/social-statistics/"

Latin Focus: Macro Economics

SOSIG: Record Details: "
LatinFocus
Description: LatinFocus is a collection of information on Latin American economies. It aims to offer 'the latest available data from government sources, economic forecasts, market analysis covering economic performance, political risk assessments and financial market developments'. There are news and a Web directory containing country and company information available from the Web site. Also freely available is information on economic indicators, economic briefings, an economic release calendar, and a list of essential economics reference books for Latin America.
Keywords: economics, economic policy, financial markets, Latin America, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela
Subject Section(s): Financial Economics Macroeconomics
Resource Type: Resource Guides
Language: en
URL: http://www.latin-focus.com/"

Need for differential discounting of costs and health effects in cost effectiveness analyses -- Brouwer et al. 331 (7514): 446 -- BMJ

Need for differential discounting of costs and health effects in cost effectiveness analyses -- Brouwer et al. 331 (7514): 446 -- BMJ: "Discounting can have a strong influence on cost effectiveness ratios for priority setting, especially in preventive interventions. It is therefore crucial that appropriate discount rates are used in economic evaluations. Increasingly, it is argued that the rate for future non-monetary health effects should be below that for future costs, to account for the growing value of health effects. The previous guidelines of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) on economic evaluation were the first national guidelines to prescribe such differential discounting (6% for costs and 1.5% for effects). However, in its latest guidelines both rates are set at 3.5%, implying a lower weight for future effects.1 We argue that this change is not based on contemporary health economic literature nor convincingly justified."

WHO conference calls for health promotion to be at centre of development -- Parry 331 (7514): 422 -- BMJ

WHO conference calls for health promotion to be at centre of development

Hong Kong Jane Parry

In a bid to put health promotion at the centre of the global development agenda, a new charter urges greater cooperation between medical and non-medical institutions.

The Bangkok charter for health promotion was adopted by participants in last week’s sixth global conference on health promotion, co-hosted by the World Health Organization and Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health.

Cost of Heart Failure in the Unified Health System

84050013.pdf (application/pdf Object)
Denizar Vianna Araujo, Leandro Reis Tavares, Renata Veríssimo, Marcos Bosi Ferraz, Evandro Tinoco Mesquita
Objetivo
Descrever custo direto e indireto do tratamento ambulatorial e hospitalar da insuficiência cardíaca, durante 2002, no Hospital Universitário Antônio Pedro, Niterói.
Métodos
Estudo transversal, retrospectivo sobre utilização e valoraçãode recursos em 70 pacientes, selecionados de forma consecutiva, em tratamento ambulatorial e hospitalar. Foram utilizados questionários e prontuários dos pacientes para coleta dos dados. Os recursos utilizados foram valorados em reais (ano 2002). O ponto de vista do estudo foi a perspectiva da sociedade. Os dados foram analisados no programa EPINFO, versão 2002.
Resultados
A população estudada constou de 70 pacientes (39 mulheres), idade média de 60,3 anos. Ocorreram 465 diárias hospitalares (28,5% dos pacientes). Houve 386 internações em enfermaria e 79 em unidade de tratamento intensivo. O custo com consulta ambulatorial foi de R$ 14,40. O gasto com medicamentos ambulatoriais totalizou R$ 83.430,00 (custo por paciente/ano de R$ 1.191,86). O custo por paciente internado foi de R$ 4.033,62.
O custo com exames complementares totalizou R$ 39.009,50 (custo por paciente/ ano de R$ 557,28). Foram aposentados pela insuficiência cardíaca 20 pacientes, representando perda de produtividade de R$ 182.000,00. O custo total foi de R$ 444.445,20.
Hospitalização representou 39,7% e a utilização de medicamentos 38,3% do custo direto.
Conclusão
O custo com hospitalização e os gastos com medicamentos representaram os principais componentes do custo direto. Os custos indiretos representaram impactos econômicos semelhantes aos custos diretos.