Abstract
Economics is centrally concerned about the use of scarce resources, and resources of many kinds are, almost by definition, particularly scarce in developing countries. Average levels of living are low and there is a limited pool of educated and trained manpower. Morever, a lower proportion of such a nation’s resources can be mobilized through taxation for communal purposes not only because a high proportion of the population is poor but also because of the administrative difficulties of collecting taxes with a low proportion of the population in regular salaried employment.
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References
For a useful discussion of the problems and summary of major studies, see Anne Mills and Margaret Thomas: Economic Evaluation in Health Programmes in Developing Countries, EPC, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, 1984.
See OECD, Measuring Health Care 1960–1983, 1985, p 12.
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WHO: Global Strategy for Health for All by the Year 2000, Geneva, 1981.
OECD, Twenty-Five Years of Development Cooperation, Paris, 1985, pp 302–303.
Mach EP, Abel-Smith B: Planning the Finances of the Health Sector, WHO, Geneva, 1983.
Abel-Smith B: Global perspective on health service financing. Soc Sci Med 1985; 21: (9) 957–963.
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© 1990 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Abel-Smith, B. (1990). The Economics of Health Care. In: Lambo, T.A., Day, S.B. (eds) Issues in Contemporary International Health. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-3713-1_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-3713-1_4
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