Table 1.

Innovations in the developing world literature.

characteristics	examples of innovations in literature
1. economic structure
household payment for healthcare can have catastrophic implications for household welfare	methods for catastrophic spending analysis; mixing quantitative and qualitative methods; studying coping behaviour
low wages and enormous human resource challenges given global market	testing of task shifting; study of health worker motivations
large informal sector and challenges for health insurance	testing and analysing community health insurance
segmented healthcare markets	exploration of willingness of richer groups to cross-subsidize the poor; options for and implications of mixed systems
high heterogeneity; large informal component	methods for studying informal providers
2. weak political and social institutions
effect on reform prescriptions, e.g. voluntary insurance enrolment, contracting, hospital autonomy	exploration of institutional contexts and their influence on reform performance
3. limited management capacity
difficulties in implementation	exploration of factors affecting implementation
4. external dependence for health financing
problems of fragmentation and volatility; external influence on domestic priorities	exploration of fiscal space issues implications of lack of commitment to policies pursued—e.g. fungibility and displacement