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While socio-economic gradients in newborn health are well established (Currie, Am. Econ. Rev. 101(3), 1–22, 2011), understanding what produces these inequalities, and in particular the unique contribution of inter-connected mechanisms, remains difficult to estimate. We adapt decomposition methods proposed by Rothe (J. Bus. Econ. Stat. 33(3), 323–337, 2015), which isolate the marginal contribution of potential explanatory variables, to explore differences in birthweight by maternal education, in France and the UK. These methods allow looking at the whole birthweight distribution rather than binary indicators of low birthweight, and the adaptation we propose allows grouping covariates into sets that tap into the same concept, providing a better measurement of the overall role of each potential mechanism in explaining health gaps. Analyses are applied to rich, nationally representative data for infants in France and the UK. Beyond differences in birthweight distributions by maternal education, differences in group characteristics (health behaviours during the pregnancy; maternal work condition; social support; demographic and economic factors) explain much of the gaps in birthweight across educational groups in both countries, but especially France. Smoking appears to be the largest source of inequality in both countries. However, differences between countries emerge, such as the importance of social support and mental well-being in the UK, suggesting that national contexts may matter in generating differences in birth health across education groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares technical aspects of accrual-based budgeting and accounting reforms of the national governments of France, Germany, the UK and the US. It shows that there is no consensus among the four countries about the complete package of technical reform possibilities that is most appropriate; there is also no consensus among the four countries about each one of the possibilities that is most appropriate. What is clear is the resilience of traditional budgetary accounting systems. It is also clear that, in the fundamental context and content of the reforms, the UK is the striking exception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cross-country comparison is made of the moves to system integration, at the national level, of electricity supply in several Western European countries. Private electricity business firms were dominant in France, Italy and Spain and large generating enterprises and transporting groups grew through mergers and agreements. In Germany, Scandinavia and the UK, municipalities were more common and were resistant to mergers and network development. Several national networks had emerged by the 1940s but hardly any were nationally managed in the sense of ensuring electricity was everywhere supplied from the lowest cost source. The article considers the economic gains from integration and argues that it developed successfully where central governments became actively involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]