The Economics Of Social Care

Care work, both paid and unpaid, contributes to well-being, social development and economic growth. But the costs of providing care are unequally borne across gender and social class. Feminist scholarship on the gendered construction of welfare provisioning and welfare regimes has produced a conceptually strong and empirically grounded analysis of care, reinforcing the necessity of rethinking the distinctions between "the public" and "the private" as well as the links between them. Yet this analysis, premised on post-industrial contexts, does not travel easily to other parts of the world. Many of its core assumptions – about family structures, labor markets, state capacities, and public social provisioning – do not hold for a wider range of countries. Drawing on original research on the care economy in three developing regions (Africa, Asia, Latin America), this volume addresses a major empirical lacuna while facilitating a conversation across the North-South divide.

This primer for social work students introduces the general definitions and concepts of economics and uses case studies in social work to develop applied knowledge. The case studies include stories of job training, substance abuse centers, counseling, therapy, child protective services, and services for the poor. The concluding chapters are devoted to topics directly related to social work: economics of poverty, health economics, household economics, the economics of labor, and government failure.

Folland, Goodman, and Stano’s bestselling The Economics of Health and Health Care text offers the market-leading overview of all aspects of Health Economics, teaching through core economic themes, rather than concepts unique to the health care economy. The Eighth Edition of this key textbook has been revised and updated throughout, and reflects changes since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In addition to its revised treatment of health insurance, the text also introduces the key literature on social capital as it applies to individual and public health, as well as looking at public health initiatives relating to population health and economic equity, and comparing numerous policies across Western countries, China, and the developing world. It provides up-to-date discussions on current issues, as well as a comprehensive bibliography with over 1,100 references. Extra material and teaching resources are now also available through the brand new companion website, which provides full sets of discussion questions, exercises, presentation slides, and a test bank. This book demonstrates the multiplicity of ways in which economists analyze the health care system, and is suitable for courses in Health Economics, Health Policy/Systems, or Public Health, taken by health services students or practitioners.

The question of how to allocate scarce medical resources has become an important public policy issue in recent decades. Cost-utility analysis is the most commonly used method for determining the allocation of these resources, but this book counters the argument that overcoming its inherent imbalances is simply a question of implementing methodological changes. The Economics of Resource Allocation in Health Care represents the first comprehensive analysis of equity weighting in health care resource allocation that offers a fundamental critique of its basic framework. It offers a critique of health economics, putting the discourse on economic evaluation into its broader socio-political context. Such an approach broadens the debate on fairness in health economics and ties it in with deeper-rooted problems in moral philosophy. Ultimately, this interdisciplinary study calls for the adoption of a fundamentally different paradigm to address the distribution of scarce medical resources. This book will be of interest to policy makers, health care professionals, and post-graduate students looking to broaden their understanding of the economics of the health care system.

This upper level textbook provides a coherent introduction to the economic implications of individual and population ageing. Placing economic considerations into a wider social sciences context, this is ideal reading not only for advanced undergraduate and masters students in economics, health economics and the economics of ageing, but also policy makers, students, professionals and practitioners in gerontology, sociology, health-related sciences and social care. This volume discusses the fiscal implications of ageing, health economics and long-term care. Fiscal policy issues include generational accounting and national transfer accounts, the relationship between ageing, public expenditure and fiscal policy, the age profiles of public expenditures and taxes, and the relationship between ageing, capital and labour taxation. Health economics with regard to ageing comprises healthy and disability-free life expectancy, the relationship between health inequalities and age, the macroeconomic implications of population health, the socio-economic determinants of health, the interaction between ageing and both individual and aggregate health expenditure, and economic approaches to valuing later life. This volume closes with an exposition of the economics of formal and informal care, as well as questions around insurance, risk and the so-called `sandwich generation'.

This book offers a rethinking of the burgeoning research on not-for-profit organizations and socially responsible economics. Adopting a comparative approach, the chapters explore and reinterpret the impact of social enterprises on the provision of general-interest services, work integration, microfinance, and fair trade, and show how these enterprises form the hub of an emerging economy of social responsibility. The book provides a new interpretation of social enterprises as entrepreneurial organizations that pursue social objectives and are successful due to the non-self-seeking motives of their members. This book will be of interest to postgraduate students, professionals working in the not-for-profit sector, and scholars interested in socially responsible economics. It is particularly suitable for seminars and workshops focusing on the management of not-for-profit organizations, sustainable development, and globalization.