Worker remittances and the global preconditions of ‘smart development’

With the growing environmental crisis affecting our globe, ideas to weigh economic or social progress by the ‘energy input’ necessary to achieve it are increasingly gaining acceptance. This question is intriguing and is being dealt with by a growing number of studies, focusing on the environmental price of human progress. Even more intriguing, however, is the question of which factors of social organization contribute to a responsible use of the resources of our planet to achieve a given social result (‘smart development’). In this essay, we present the first systematic study on how migration – or rather, more concretely, received worker remittances per GDP – helps the nations of our globe to enjoy social and economic progress at a relatively small environmental price. We look at the effects of migration on the balance sheets of societal accounting, based on the ‘ecological price’ of the combined performance of democracy, economic growth, gender equality, human development, research and development, and social cohesion. Feminism in power, economic freedom, population density, the UNDP education index as well as the receipt of worker remittances all significantly contribute towards a ‘smart overall development’, while high military expenditures and a high world economic openness are a bottleneck for ‘smart overall development’.

A prosztatarák gazdasági terhe nagy betegregiszterek alapján (The economic burden of prostate cancer. A systematic literature overview of registry-based studies)

INTRODUCTION: Prostate cancer, the most frequent malignant disease in males in Europe, accounts for a great proportion of health expenditures. AIM: A systematic review of registry-based studies about the cost-of-illness and related factors of prostate cancer, published in the last 10 years. METHOD: A MEDLINE-based literature review was carried out between January 1, 2003 and October 1, 2013. RESULTS: Fifteen peer-reviewed articles met the criteria of interest. In developed countries radiotherapy, surgical treatment and hormone therapy account for the greatest per capita costs. In Europe early stage tumours (4-7000 €, 2006), while in the USA metastatic prostate cancer (19 900-25 500 $, 2004) was associated with highest per capita expenses. In Europe the greatest costs incurred within the initial treatment (6400 €/6 months, 2008), while in the USA within the end-of-life care (depending on age: 62 200-93 400 $, 2010). CONCLUSIONS: Despite public health importance of prostate cancer, the cost-of-illness literature from Europe is relatively small.