Micro and Macro essays in Applied Fiscal Policy

This thesis analysis micro and macro aspect of applied fiscal policy issues. The first chapter investigates the extent to which local budget spending composition reacts to fiscal rules variations. I consider the budget of Italian municipalities and exploit specific changes in the Domestic Stability Pact’s rules, to perform a difference-in-discontinuities analysis. The results show that imposing a cap on the total amount of consumption and investment is not as binding as two caps, one for consumption and a different one for investment. More specifically, consumption is triggered by changes in wages and services spending, while investment relies on infrastructure movements. In addition, there is evidence that when an increase in investment is achieved, there is also a higher budget deficit level. The second chapter intends to analyze the extent to which fiscal policy shocks are able to affect macrovariables during business cycle fluctuations, differentiating among three intervention channels: public taxation, consumption and investment. The econometric methodology implemented is a Panel Vector Autoregressive model with a structural characterization. The results show that fiscal shocks have different multipliers in relation to expansion or contraction periods: output does not react during good times while there are significant effects in bad ones. The third chapter evaluates the effects of fiscal policy announcements by the Italian government on the long-term sovereign bond spread of Italy relative to Germany. After collecting data on relevant fiscal policy announcements, we perform an econometric comparative analysis between the three cabinets that followed one another during the period 2009-2013. The results suggest that only fiscal policy announcements made by members of Monti’s cabinet have been effective in influencing significantly the Italian spread in the expected direction, revealing a remarkable credibility gap between Berlusconi’s and Letta’s governments with respect to Monti’s administration.

Fast frontend electronics for high rate particle detectors

Future experiments in nuclear and particle physics are moving towards the high luminosity regime in order to access rare processes. In this framework, particle detectors require high rate capability together with excellent timing resolution for precise event reconstruction. In order to achieve this, the development of dedicated FrontEnd Electronics (FEE) for detectors has become increasingly challenging and expensive. Thus, a current trend in R&D is towards flexible FEE that can be easily adapted to a great variety of detectors, without impairing the required high performance. This thesis reports on a novel FEE for two different detector types: imaging Cherenkov counters and plastic scintillator arrays. The former requires high sensitivity and precision for detection of single photon signals, while the latter is characterized by slower and larger signals typical of scintillation processes. The FEE design was developed using high-bandwidth preamplifiers and fast discriminators which provide Time-over-Threshold (ToT). The use of discriminators allowed for low power consumption, minimal dead-times and self-triggering capabilities, all fundamental aspects for high rate applications. The output signals of the FEE are readout by a high precision TDC system based on FPGA. The performed full characterization of the analogue signals under realistic conditions proved that the ToT information can be used in a novel way for charge measurements or walk corrections, thus improving the obtainable timing resolution. Detailed laboratory investigations proved the feasibility of the ToT method. The full readout chain was investigated in test experiments at the Mainz Microtron: high counting rates per channel of several MHz were achieved, and a timing resolution of better than 100 ps after walk correction based on ToT was obtained. Ongoing applications to fast Time-of-Flight counters and future developments of FEE have been also recently investigated.

Supply sensitive services in Swiss ambulatory care: an analysis of basic health insurance records for 2003-2007

Swiss ambulatory care is characterized by independent, and primarily practice-based, physicians, receiving fee for service reimbursement. This study analyses supply sensitive services using ambulatory care claims data from mandatory health insurance. A first research question was aimed at the hypothesis that physicians with large patient lists decrease their intensity of services and bill less per patient to health insurance, and vice versa: physicians with smaller patient lists compensate for the lack of patients with additional visits and services. A second research question relates to the fact that several cantons are allowing physicians to directly dispense drugs to patients ('self-dispensation') whereas other cantons restrict such direct sales to emergencies only. This second question was based on the assumption that patterns of rescheduling patients for consultations may differ across channels of dispensing prescription drugs and therefore the hypothesis of different consultation costs in this context was investigated.

Posttraumatic stress disorder and soluble cellular adhesion molecules at rest and in response to a trauma-specific interview in patients after myocardial infarction

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and circulating cellular adhesion molecules (CAMs) predict cardiovascular risk. We hypothesized a positive relationship between PTSD caused by myocardial infarction (MI) and soluble CAMs. We enrolled 22 post-MI patients with interviewer-rated PTSD and 22 post-MI patients with no PTSD. At 32±6months after index MI, all patients were re-scheduled to undergo the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) interview and had blood collected to assess soluble CAMs at rest and after the CAPS interview. Relative to patients with no PTSD, those with PTSD had significantly higher levels of soluble vascular cellular adhesion molecule (sVCAM)-1 and intercellular adhesion molecule (sICAM)-1 at rest and, controlling for resting CAM levels, significantly higher sVCAM-1 and sICAM-1 after the interview. Greater severity of PTSD predicted significantly higher resting levels of sVCAM-1 and soluble P-selectin in patients with PTSD. At follow-up, patients with persistent PTSD (n=15) and those who had remitted (n=7) did not significantly differ in CAM levels at rest and after the interview; however, both these groups had significantly higher sVCAM-1 and sICAM-1 at rest and also after the interview compared to patients with no PTSD. Elevated levels of circulating CAMs might help explain the psychophysiologic link of PTSD with cardiovascular risk.

Retrieval simulations of the vertical profiles of water vapour and other chemical species in the Martian atmosphere using PACS

Water vapour, despite being a minor constituent in the Martian atmosphere with its precipitable amount of less than 70 pr. μm, attracts considerable attention in the scientific community because of its potential importance for past life on Mars. The partial pressure of water vapour is highly variable because of its seasonal condensation onto the polar caps and exchange with a subsurface reservoir. It is also known to drive photochemical processes: photolysis of water produces H, OH, HO2 and some other odd hydrogen compounds, which in turn destroy ozone. Consequently, the abundance of water vapour is anti-correlated with ozone abundance. The Herschel Space Observatory provides for the first time the possibility to retrieve vertical water profiles in the Martian atmosphere. Herschel will contribute to this topic with its guaranteed-time key project called "Water and related chemistry in the solar system". Observations of Mars by Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared (HIFI) and Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) onboard Herschel are planned in the frame of the programme. HIFI with its high spectral resolution enables accurate observations of vertically resolved H2O and temperature profiles in the Martian atmosphere. Unlike HIFI, PACS is not capable of resolving the line-shape of molecular lines. However, our present study of PACS observations for the Martian atmosphere shows that the vertical sensitivity of the PACS observations can be improved by using multiple-line observations with different line opacities. We have investigated the possibility of retrieving vertical profiles of temperature and molecular abundances of minor species including H2O in the Martian atmosphere using PACS. In this paper, we report that PACS is able to provide water vapour vertical profiles for the Martian atmosphere and we present the expected spectra for future PACS observations. We also show that the spectral resolution does not allow the retrieval of several studied minor species, such as H2O2, HCl, NO, SO2, etc.

Examining the Justification for Residential Recycling

Municipalities in the United States have for the past two decades initiated two policies to reduce residential solid waste generation by increasing recycling. The first policy, implemented in over 4,000 municipalities in the United States, requires households to pay a fee for each unit of garbage presented at the curb for collection. The second policy, initiated in 8,875 municipalities, subsidizes household recycling efforts by providing free curbside collection of certain recyclable materials. Both initiatives serve as examples of incentive-based environmental policies favored by many economists. But before economists can celebrate this wide-spread adoption of incentive-based environmental policies, further examination reveals that potentially inefficient command and control policies have been more instrumental in promoting recycling than might be commonly known. This article examines the empirical lessons gained from studying twenty years of solid waste policy in the United States and argues for the replacement of several state recycling mandates with a system of state and/or national landfill taxes.

The Sociolinguistics of Hungarian Outside Hungary

This study describes the sociolinguistic situation of the indigenous Hungarian national minorities in Slovakia (c. 600,000), Ukraine (c. 180,000), Romania (c. 2,000,000), Yugoslavia (c. 300,000), Slovenia (c. 8,000) and Austria (c. 6,000). Following the guidelines of Hans Goebl et al, the historical sociolinguistic portrait of each minority is presented from 1920 through to the mid-1990s. Each country's report includes sections on geography and demography, history, politics, economy, culture and religion, language policy and planning, and language use (domains of minority and/or majority language use, proficiency, attitudes, etc.). The team's findings were presented in the form of 374 pages of manuscripts, articles and tables, written in Hungarian and English. The core of the team's research results lies in the results of an empirical survey designed to study the social characteristics of Hungarian-minority bilingualism in the six project countries, and the linguistic similarities and differences between the six contact varieties of Hungarian and Hungarian in Hungary. The respondents were divided by age, education, and settlement group - city vs. village and local majority vs. local minority. The first thing to be observed is that Hungarian is tending to be spoken less to children than to parents and grandparents, a familiar pattern of language shift. In contact varieties of Hungarian, analytic constructions may be used where monolingual Hungarians would use a more synthetic form. Mr Kontra gives as an example the compound tagdij, which in Standard Hungarian means "membership fee" but which is replaced in contact Hungarian by the two-word phrase tagsagi dij. Another similar example concerns the synthetic verb hegedult "played the violin" and the analytic expression hegedun jatszott. The contrast is especially striking between the Hungarians in the northern Slavic countries, who use the synthetic form frequently, and those in the southern Slavic countries, who mainly use the analytic form. Mr. Kontra notes that from a structural point of view, there is no immediate explanation for this, since Slovak or Ukrainian are as likely to cause interference as is Serbian. He postulates instead that the difference may be attributable to some sociohistoric cause, and points out that the Turkish occupation of what is today Voivodina caused a discontinuity of the Hungarian presence in the region, with the result that Hungarians were resettled in the area only two and a half centuries ago. However, the Hungarians in today's Slovakia and Ukraine have lived together with Slavic peoples continuously for over a millennium. It may be, he suggests, that 250 years of interethnic coexistence is less than is needed for such a contact-induced change to run its course. Next Mr. Kontra moved on to what he terms "mental maps and morphology". In Hungarian, the names of cities and villages take the surface case (eg. Budapest-en "in Budapest") whereas some names denoting Hungarian settlements and all names of foreign cities take the interior case (eg. Tihany-ban "in Tihany" and Boston-ban "in Boston). The role of the semantic feature "foreign" in suffix-choice can be illustrated by such minimal pairs as Velence-n "in Velence, a village in Hungary" versus Velence-ben "in Velence [=Venice], a city in Italy", and Pecs-en "in Pecs, a city in Hungary" vs. Becs-ben "in Becs, ie. Vienna". This Hungarian vs. foreign distinction is often interpreted as "belonging to historical (pre-1920) Hungary" vs. "outside historical Hungary". The distinction is also expressed in the dichotomy "home" vs. "abroad'. The 1920 border changes have had an impact on both majority and minority Hungarians' mental maps, the maps which govern the choice of surface vs. interior cases with placenames. As there is a growing divergence between the mental maps of majority and minority Hungarians, so there will be a growing divergence in their use of the placename suffixes. Two placenames were chosen to scratch the surface of this complex problem: Craiova (a city in Oltenia, Romania) and Kosovo (Hungarian Koszovo) an autonomous region in southeast Yugoslavia. The assumption to be tested was that both placenames would be used with the inessive (interior) suffixes categorically by Hungarians in Hungary, but that the superessive suffix (showing "home") would be used near-categorically by Hungarians in Romania and Yugoslavia (Voivodina). Minority Hungarians in countries other than Romania and Yugoslavia would show no difference from majority Hungarians in Hungary. In fact, the data show that, contrary to expectation, there is considerable variation within Hungary. And although Koszovo is used, as expected, with the "home" suffix by 61% of the informants in Yugoslavia, the same suffix is used by an even higher percentage of the subjects in Slovenia. Mr. Kontra's team suggests that one factor playing a role in this might be the continuance of the former Yugoslav mentality in the Hungarians of Slovenia, at least from the geographical point of view. The contact varieties of Hungarian show important grammatical differences from Hungarian in Hungary. One of these concerns the variable use of Null subjects (the inclusion or exclusion of the subject of the verb). When informants were asked to insert either megkertem or megkertem ot - "I asked her" - into a test sentence, 54.9% of the respondents in the Ukraine inserted the second phrase as opposed to only 27.4% in Hungary. Although Mr. Kontra and his team concentrated more on the differences between Contact Hungarian and Standard Hungarian, they also discovered a number of similarities. One such similarity is demonstrable in the distribution of what Mr. Kontra calls an ongoing syntactic merger in Hungarian in Hungary. This change means effectively that two possibilities merge to form a third. For instance, the two sentences Valoszinuleg kulfoldre fognak koltozni and Valoszinu, hogy kulfoldre fognak koltozni merge to form the new construction Valszinuleg, hogy kulfoldre fognak koltozni ("Probably they will move abroad."). When asked to choose "the most natural" of the sentences, one in four chose the new construction, and a chi-square test shows homogeneity in the sample. In other words, this syntactic change is spreading across the entire Hungarian-speaking region in the Carpathian Basin Mr. Kontra believes that politicians, educators, and other interested parties now have reliable and up-to-date information about each Hungarian minority. An awareness of Hungarian as a pluricentric language is being developed which elevates the status of contact varieties of Hungarian used by the minorities, an essential process, he believes, if minority languages are to be maintained.

Evidence for low-grade systemic proinflammatory activity in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may increase cardiovascular risk but the psychophysiological mechanisms involved are elusive. We hypothesized that proinflammatory activity is elevated in patients with PTSD as diagnosed by the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) interview. Plasma levels of proinflammatory C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin (IL)-1beta, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, and of anti-inflammatory IL-4 and IL-10 were measured in 14 otherwise healthy PTSD patients and in 14 age- and gender-matched healthy non-PTSD controls. Levels of TNF-alpha (p=0.038; effect size Cohen's d=0.58) and of IL-1beta (p=0.075, d=0.68) were higher in patients than in controls. CRP (d=0.10), IL-6 (d=0.18), IL-4 (d=0.42), and IL-10 (d=0.37) were not significantly different between groups. Controlling for traditional cardiovascular risk factors, mood, and time since trauma revealed lower IL-4 in patients than in controls (p=0.029) and rendered group differences in TNF-alpha and IL-1beta insignificant. In all subjects, TNF-alpha correlated with total (frequency and intensity) PTSD symptom cluster of re-experiencing (r=0.49, p=0.008), avoidance (r=0.37, p=0.050), and hyperarousal (r=0.42, p=0.026), and with PTSD total symptom score (r=0.37, p=0.054). Controlling for time since trauma attenuated these associations. The correlation between IL-1beta and total avoidance symptoms (r=0.42, p=0.028) became insignificant when controlling for anxiety and depression. IL-4 correlated with total hyperarousal symptoms (r=-0.38, p=0.047), and after controlling for systolic blood pressure and smoking status, with PTSD total symptom score (r=-0.41, p=0.035). PTSD patients showed a low-grade systemic proinflammatory state, which, moreover, was related to PTSD symptom levels suggesting one mechanism by which PTSD could contribute to atherosclerotic disease.

Altered blood coagulation in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder

OBJECTIVE: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been associated with an increased cardiovascular risk, though the pathophysiologic mechanisms involved are elusive. A hypercoagulable state before occurrence of coronary thrombosis contributes to atherosclerosis development. We investigated whether PTSD would be associated with increased coagulation activity. METHODS: We measured resting plasma levels of clotting factor VII activity (FVII:C), FVIII:C, FXII:C, fibrinogen, and D-dimer in 14 otherwise healthy patients with PTSD and in 14 age- and gender-matched, trauma-exposed non-PTSD controls. Categorical and dimensional diagnoses of PTSD were made using the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) interview. We also investigated to what extent the relationship between PTSD and coagulation measures would be confounded by demographics, cardiovascular risk factors, lifestyle variables, time since trauma, and mood. RESULTS: Coagulation factor levels did not significantly differ between patients with a categorical diagnosis of PTSD and controls while controlling for covariates. In all subjects, FVIII:C was predicted by hyperarousal severity (beta = 0.46, p = .014) independent of covariates and by overall PTSD symptom severity (beta = 0.38, p = .045); the latter association was of borderline significance when separately controlling for gender, smoking, exercise, and anxiety (p values <.07). In patients, fibrinogen was predicted by hyperarousal severity (beta = 0.70, p = .005) and by overall PTSD symptom severity (beta = 0.61, p = .020), with mood partially affecting these associations. FVII:C, fibrinogen, and D-dimer showed no independent association with PTSD symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: PTSD may elicit hypercoagulability, even at subthreshold levels, offering one psychobiological pathway by which posttraumatic stress might contribute to atherosclerosis progression and clinical cardiovascular disease.

[The SPI implant system: clinical experience and one-year results]

The new Swiss implant system SPI became available three years ago and is used in combination with fixed and removable prosthetic reconstructions. In a pilot study the clinical procedures were evaluated and data of prosthetic complications of maintenance service were collected. 25 patients participated in the study with a total of 79 SPI implants during the time period from 2003-2004. 37 implants were located in the maxilla and 42 implants in the mandible. Two implants failed during the healing period, but no loaded implant was lost. Thus, the survival rate was 97.5% (77/79). 44 implants supported a fixed prosthesis, including nine single crowns and 33 implants were used in combination with removable partial denture. Four implants were used with ball anchor retention, 29 with bar support. The ELEMENT implant with the low implant shoulder allows very good esthetics. Prosthetic complications and maintenance service during the first year of function was comparable with other implant systems. Since the design of the abutment screws, healing caps and screwdriver was changed, the system has become easier in its application.

Primary care physician supply and other key determinants of health care utilisation: The case of Switzerland

Background The Swiss government decided to freeze new accreditations for physicians in private practice in Switzerland based on the assumption that demand-induced health care spending may be cut by limiting care offers. This legislation initiated an ongoing controversial public debate in Switzerland. The aim of this study is therefore the determination of socio-demographic and health system-related factors of per capita consultation rates with primary care physicians in the multicultural population of Switzerland. Methods The data were derived from the complete claims data of Swiss health insurers for 2004 and included 21.4 million consultations provided by 6564 Swiss primary care physicians on a fee-for-service basis. Socio-demographic data were obtained from the Swiss Federal Statistical Office. Utilisation-based health service areas were created and were used as observational units for statistical procedures. Multivariate and hierarchical models were applied to analyze the data. Results Models within the study allowed the definition of 1018 primary care service areas with a median population of 3754 and an average per capita consultation rate of 2.95 per year. Statistical models yielded significant effects for various geographical, socio-demographic and cultural factors. The regional density of physicians in independent practice was also significantly associated with annual consultation rates and indicated an associated increase 0.10 for each additional primary care physician in a population of 10,000 inhabitants. Considerable differences across Swiss language regions were observed with reference to the supply of ambulatory health resources provided either by primary care physicians, specialists, or hospital-based ambulatory care. Conclusion The study documents a large small-area variation in utilisation and provision of health care resources in Switzerland. Effects of physician density appeared to be strongly related to Swiss language regions and may be rooted in the different cultural backgrounds of the served populations.

Game-theoretic view on intermediated exchange

Intermediaries permeate modern economic exchange. Most classical models on intermediated exchange are driven by information asymmetry and inventory management. These two factors are of reduced significance in modern economies. This makes it necessary to develop models that correspond more closely to modern financial marketplaces. The goal of this dissertation is to propose and examine such models in a game theoretical context. The proposed models are driven by asymmetries in the goals of different market participants. Hedging pressure as one of the most critical aspects in the behavior of commercial entities plays a crucial role. The first market model shows that no equilibrium solution can exist in a market consisting of a commercial buyer, a commercial seller and a non-commercial intermediary. This indicates a clear economic need for non-commercial trading intermediaries: a direct trade from seller to buyer does not result in an equilibrium solution. The second market model has two distinct intermediaries between buyer and seller: a spread trader/market maker and a risk-neutral intermediary. In this model a unique, natural equilibrium solution is identified in which the supply-demand surplus is traded by the risk-neutral intermediary, whilst the market maker trades the remainder from seller to buyer. Since the market maker’s payoff for trading at the identified equilibrium price is zero, this second model does not provide any motivation for the market maker to enter the market. The third market model introduces an explicit transaction fee that enables the market maker to secure a positive payoff. Under certain assumptions on this transaction fee the equilibrium solution of the previous model applies and now also provides a financial motivation for the market maker to enter the market. If the transaction fee violates an upper bound that depends on supply, demand and riskaversity of buyer and seller, the market will be in disequilibrium.

Early loss of HIV-infected patients on potent antiretroviral therapy programmes in lower-income countries

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the early loss of patients to antiretroviral therapy (ART) programmes in resource-limited settings. METHODS: Using data on 5491 adult patients starting ART (median age 35 years, 46% female) in 15 treatment programmes in Africa, Asia and South America with (3) 12 months of follow-up, we investigated risk factors for no follow-up after treatment initiation, and loss to follow-up or death in the first 6 months. FINDINGS: Overall, 211 patients (3.8%) had no follow-up, 880 (16.0%) were lost to follow-up and 141 (2.6%) were known to have died in the first 6 months. The probability of no follow-up was higher in 2003-2004 than in 2000 or earlier (odds ratio, OR: 5.06; 95% confidence interval, CI: 1.28-20.0), as was loss to follow-up (hazard ratio, HR: 7.62; 95% CI: 4.55-12.8) but not recorded death (HR: 1.02; 95% CI: 0.44-2.36). Compared with a baseline CD4-cell count (3) 50 cells/microl, a count < 25 cells/microl was associated with a higher probability of no follow-up (OR: 2.49; 95% CI: 1.43-4.33), loss to follow-up (HR: 1.48; 95% CI: 1.23-1.77) and death (HR: 3.34; 95% CI: 2.10-5.30). Compared to free treatment, fee-for-service programmes were associated with a higher probability of no follow-up (OR: 3.71; 95% CI: 0.97-16.05) and higher mortality (HR: 4.64; 95% CI: 1.11-19.41). CONCLUSION: Early patient losses were increasingly common when programmes were scaled up and were associated with a fee for service and advanced immunodeficiency at baseline. Measures to maximize ART programme retention are required in resource-poor countries.

WATER ACCESS AND MAINTENANCE IN KARONGA, MALAWI

This report is a case study of how Mwangalala community accesses water and how that access is maintained. Mwangalala community is located in the northern tip of Karonga district in Malawi, Africa. The case study evaluates how close the community is to meeting target 10 of the Millennium Development Goals, sustainable access to safe drinking water, and evaluates the current water system through Human Centered Design’s criteria of desirability, feasibility, and viability. It also makes recommendations to improve water security in Mwangalala community. Data was collected through two years of immersive observation, interviews with 30 families, and observing two wells on three separate occasions. The 30 interviews provided a sample size of over 10% of the community’s population. Participants were initially self-selected and then invited to participate in the research. I walked along community pathways and accepted invitations to join casual conversations in family compounds. After conversing I asked the family members if they would be willing to participate in my research by talking with me about water. Data collected from the interviews and the observations of two wells were compared and analyzed for common themes. Shallow wells or open wells represented the primary water source for 93% of interview participants. Boreholes were also present in the community, but produced unpalatable water due to high concentrations of dissolved iron and were not used as primary water sources. During observations 75% of community members who used the shallow well, primarily used for consumptive uses like cooking or dinking, were females. Boreholes were primarily used for non-consumptive uses such as watering crops or bathing and 77% of the users were male. Shallow wells could remain in disrepair for two months because the repairman was a volunteer, who was not compensated for the skilled labor required to repair the wells. Community members thought the maintenance fee went towards his salary, so did not compensate the repairman when he performed work. This miscommunication provided no incentive for the repairman to make well repairs a priority, and left community members frustrated with untimely repairs. Shallow wells with functional pumps failed to provide water when the water table levels drop during dry season, forcing community members to seek secondary or tertiary water sources. Open wells, converted from shallow wells after community members did not pay for repairs to the pump, represented 44% of the wells originally installed with Mark V hand pumps. These wells whose pumps were not repaired were located in fields and one beside a church. The functional wells were all located on school grounds or in family compounds, where responsibility for the well’s maintenance is clearly defined. Mwangalala community fails to meet Millennium Development goals because the wells used by the community do not provide sustainable access to safe drinking water. Open wells, used by half the participants in the study, lack a top covering to prevent contamination from debris and wildlife. Shallow well repair times are unsustainable, taking longer than two weeks to be repaired, primarily because the repair persons are expected to provide skilled labor to repair the wells without compensation. Improving water security for Mwangalala can be achieved by improving repair times on shallow wells and making water from boreholes palatable. There are no incentives for a volunteer repair person to fix wells in a timely manner. Repair times can be improved by reducing the number of wells a repair person is responsible for and compensating the person for the skilled labor provided. Water security would be further improved by removing iron particulates from borehole water, thus rendering it palatable. This is possible through point of use filtration utilizing ceramic candles; this would make pumped water available year-round.