Achieving France’s medium-term fiscal targets will require significant expenditure efforts. This paper identifies areas where there is scope for increasing expenditure efficiency, with a view to achieving higher quality and more sustainable fiscal consolidation. The methodology is based on a triple benchmarking. First, the level of public expenditure in different categories is compared to other European countries. Second, the impact of spending is assessed against other European countries. Third, the input mix is analyzed to understand what components are responsible for the level of spending and for the quality of outcomes This is done for various categories of spending and policies. Based on these results, the paper then provides policy options for expenditure reform in each of these areas, drawing on successful reform episodes in other countries.

Kuwait’s 2005 Article IV Consultation reports that the economic and financial positions are projected to remain strong mainly on the expectation that world oil prices will decline only gradually. Reflecting sharply higher oil prices and production, economic conditions improved significantly in 2003 and 2004. The main economic challenge facing Kuwait is to create sufficient employment opportunities for the rapidly growing national labor force by accelerating the growth of the private non-oil economy.

In this book, the second of a three-volume series, leading authorities on the methodology of environmental assessment provide a unique insight into questions of critical importance to sustainable urban development. Using the framework and protocols set out in Volume 1, Volume 2 examines how well the environmental assessment methods evaluate the ecological integrity of urban development and equity of the resulting resource distribution. The examination focuses on: the instruments of environmental assessment approaches to environmental assessment based in systems-thinking methods for environmental, economic and social assessments their use in evaluating the sustainability of urban development. The Sustainable Urban Development Series contains the research and debate of the BEQUEST (Building, Environmental Quality Evaluation for Sustainability) network funded by the European Commission. Together the books provide a framework, set of protocols, environmental assessment methods and toolkit for policy makers, academics, professionals and advanced level students in urban planning and studies, as well as other areas of the built environment.

This second title of a three-volume series based on research by the influential BEQUEST network examines the methodology of environmental assessment, providing unique insight into critical aspects to sustainable urban development.

This valuable handbook makes the U.S. health care system understandable, reviews the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or "Obamacare," describes past health care reform efforts, and covers the important organizations and people involved in U.S. health care reform. Why does the United States produce poorer outcomes for Americans in terms of health care than most other developed countries that spend a lower percentage of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health care? Should health insurance be private or should it be managed by the government? The second edition of Healthcare Reform in America: A Reference Handbook addresses these complex and difficult questions and many more in its thorough treatment of one of the most controversial issues in contemporary American discourse. The work provides a broad introduction to the history and key issues in the development and reform of the U.S. health care system. It then addresses the recent passage of the Affordable Care Act and the myriad of significant expected changes due to the Act, thereby providing readers with information essential to understanding the current issues regarding health care reform. This work serves as a valuable resource to high school and college students as well as to general readers wanting to learn about the history and current focus of health care reform in the United States.

Both writers' novels borrow heavily from other authors, and in doing so they offer strategies for a politically committed rereading of literary history and its interaction with the popular imagination.".