What Can Child Anthropometry Reveal About Living Standards and Public Policy? An Illustration from Central Asia

The paper considers the case for the use of data on weight and height of children to assess living standards and public policy, contrasting them with monetized measures of welfare based on household incomes or expenditures. Data on child anthropometry are then used from Uzbekistan, the most populous of the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union, to investigate rural–urban differences in living standards, the impact of kindergartens on nutritional status, and the targeting of means-tested social assistance. Conclusions are drawn for the use of information on child anthropometry in the design of public policy.     

Economics and the treatment of AIDS: a preliminary assessment

This paper applied cost-effectiveness analysis to the use of drug therapy in the treatment of AIDS. The empirical approach adopted overcame the facts that the samples of patients had varying clinical prognoses, had variable entry dates into the samples and, because AIDS is a terminal disease, had variable exit dates. Holding these variables constant, administration of the drug AZT proved to be a less costly alternative than other existing palliatives for AIDS. The sub-sample of patients treated with AZT had lower hospitalization costs, lower caring costs and sufferers had an increased ability to continue to participate for longer as economically active members of society.     

Greater curvature antral flattening: A radiologic sign of NSAID-related gastropathy

We have occasionally encountered patients on nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in whom double contrast barium studies revealed persistent flattening and stiffening of the distal greater curvature of the stomach. We therefore performed a study to determine the frequency of this finding in patients with NSAID-related gastropathy. Twenty-one cases of erosive gastritis, gastric ulcers, and/or gastric scarring associated with a known history of NSAID use were reviewed by two radiologists who made a joint decision regarding the presence or absence of greater curvature antral flattening. This finding was seen radiographically in five of the 21 patients (24%). Four of the five patients with antral flattening had associated erosions or ulcers in the gastric antrum. The remaining patient had antral flattening as an isolated finding. Our experience suggests that flattening of the greater curvature of the distal antrum, particularly if associated with erosive gastritis or gastric ulcers, is a useful radiologic sign of NSAID-related gastropathy.     

A model of the skill composition of US immigration

A human capital model is specified to explain the skill composition of US immigration. A unique set of panel data (57 source countries and 15 annual observations) and a methodology not previously used to study a demographic phenomenon are employed to estimate the model. Coefficients on time-invariant variables are recovered by means of the Hausman - Taylor instrumental variable procedure, which yields considerably different results than the generalized least squares model.     

Intertemporal consumer behaviour in developing countries

This paper explores aggregate consumption behaviour in four developing countries under the assumption that consumers' planning horizons do not extend over their expected lifetime. Under certain conditions, the resulting ‘moving planning horizon model’ suggests that changes in current income would exert considerably more influence over current consumer spending than is predicted by forward-looking theories of consumption which typically assume that consumers' planning horizons coincide with expected lifetime. Estimation of the model for the group of developing countries provides empirical support for the role of changes in current income in influencing the consumption process. The results also reveal that consumers are relatively short-sighted sinced the length of the planning period of consumers ranges from just over ten months. An important implication of these findings is that policy measures can be effective not only if they influence consumers' permanent incomes but also if they affect changes in current income.