How do policy levers shape the quality of a national health system?

Poor quality of care may have a detrimental effect on access and take-up and can become a serious barrier to the universality of health services. This consideration is of particular interest in view of the fact that health systems in many countries must address a growing public-sector deficit and respond to increasing pressures due to COVID-19 and aging population, among other factors. In line with a rapidly emerging literature, we focus on patient satisfaction as a proxy for quality of health care. Drawing on rich longitudinal and cross-sectional data for Spain and multilevel estimation techniques, we show that in addition to individual level differences, policy levers (such as public health spending and the patient-doctor ratio, in particular) exert a considerable influence on the quality of a health care system. Our results suggest that policymakers seeking to enhance the quality of care should be cautious when compromising the level of health resources, and in particular, health personnel, as a response to economic downturns in a sector that traditionally had insufficient human resources in many countries, which have become even more evident in the light of the current health crisis. Additionally, we provide evidence that the increasing reliance on the private health sector may be indicative of inefficiencies in the public system and/or the existence of features of private insurance which are deemed important by patients.     

The relationship between lifetime health trajectories and socioeconomic attainment in middle age

A large literature demonstrates the direct and indirect influence of health on socioeconomic attainment, and reveals the ways in which health and socioeconomic background simultaneously and dynamically affect opportunities for attainment and mobility. Despite an increasing understanding of the effects of health on social processes, research to date remains limited in its conceptualization and measurement of the temporal dimensions of health, especially in the presence of socioeconomic circumstances that covary with health over time. Guided by life course theory, we use data from the British National Child Development Study, an ongoing panel study of a cohort born in 1958, to examine the association between lifetime health trajectories and socioeconomic attainment in middle age. We apply finite mixture modeling to identify distinct trajectories of health that simultaneously account for timing, duration and stability. Moreover, we employ propensity score weighting models to account for the presence of time-varying socioeconomic factors in estimating the impact of health trajectories. We find that, when poor health is limited to the childhood years, the disadvantage in socioeconomic attainment relative to being continuously healthy is either insignificant or largely explained by time-varying socioeconomic confounders. The socioeconomic impact of continuously deteriorating health over the life course is more persistent, however. Our results suggest that accounting for the timing, duration and stability of poor health throughout both childhood and adulthood is important for understanding how health works to produce social stratification. In addition, the findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between confounding and mediating effects of time-varying socioeconomic circumstances.     

国有经济在国民经济中的核心地位

国有经济在国民经济中的核心地位是毋庸置疑的 ,关键是国有经济在国民经济中所占比例应该存在一个平衡的尺度点 ,这个尺度点与外在的国际环境和内在的社会结构密切相关。文章分析了国有经济及其变形形态 ,并描述了其运行规律。文章强调 ,社会人的公私二像性特征是深刻理解国民经济体系中国有经济未来发展趋势的理论基石。     

美、加公共管理领域非学位教育的借鉴意义

本文就美、加高校在公共管理领域从业人员非学位教育方面的特色从培训计划、方法、师资和评估四个方面进行分析, 对其借鉴意义进行了探讨。     

制约学校体育实施健康教育的诸因素分析

本文主要对影响学校体育实施健康教育的因素进行了分类研究 ,为学校体育实施健康教育提供科学的参考依据。     

试论权利的演变及其成本——基于政府实现公共利益能力的视角

无论从任何角度考察，权利都以政府的巨大财政成本作为后盾，否则权利便无从实现。当现代政府的公共利益责任与权利成本发生矛盾时，如何协调二者之间的关系，将权利成本最小化、公共利益最大化，就成为理论界与实务界必须承担的责任。     

Chemical risk communication through the Internet in Spain

In this work, some corporate websites of the chemical industry of Tarragona (Spain) are studied, analysing how the chemical trade associations and companies present information and/or encourage dialogue with the community on issues relating to the chemical risk and their environmental, health and safety (EHS) performance. The results suggest that the chemical industry in Tarragona uses the corporate websites mainly to disseminate information about its EHS commitments and performance, but they do not encourage dialogue with the community through the Internet.     

The re-enchantment of social institutions: Max Weber and public relations

The German sociologist Max Weber is rarely referred to in public relations theory and research. In this article it is argued that his concepts of legitimacy and legitimation are relevant for understanding and analyzing public relations activities. Legitimacy, i.e. having sufficient external support to continue to exist, is seen as the ultimate purpose of public relations, and legitimation is seen as the efforts which are aimed at acquiring organizational legitimacy. The article discusses both theoretical and practical implications of these ideas for the field of public relations.     

Help or hype: Symbolic or behavioral communication during Hurricane Katrina

Public relations professionals increasingly rely on the World Wide Web to communicate with their publics on a variety of issues, including the corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts the organization has undertaken. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, there is an opportunity to discover how the Best 100 Global Brands used their corporate websites and the power of their brand equity to help the victims of the disaster, as well as to communicate their own CSR efforts. Results show that 51% of these Top 100 firms had messages on their homepages about Hurricane Katrina, and 86% of those firms made donations totaling $105,000,000. The remaining 14% of firms exhibited symbolic communication only, with links to philanthropic organizations aiding rescue efforts.