This article examines patterns and determinants of the likelihood and financial burden of encountering out-of-pocket healthcare expenses in Sri Lankan households as, on average, more than 60% of households incur such costs. This percentage varies substantially across household categories in demographic properties, sectors and ability-to-pay. Households comprising more than one elderly person, pre-school children, members with chronic illnesses, and literate household heads are at significant risk of incurring out-of-pocket payments and bearing a higher financial burden. Rural and estate sector households are more likely to bear a higher burden. The marginal effects of household income show that the burden of private healthcare is less sensitive towards changes in household income and that households' burden in private healthcare was regressive in 2006/2007. Hence results imply that low-income households need to be protected. Analysis of supply side factors shows that availability of closer government hospitals, bed numbers and dentists in government hospitals reduce the burden of out-of-pocket expenses. However, more government doctors lead to higher likelihood and burden of incurring such healthcare expenses and create a government-doctor-induced cost. Therefore, the results show a convincing need for the expansion of healthcare infrastructure by government and a policy framework for its doctors that will lessen the financial burden in Sri Lankan households, particularly the poor.

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Over the past couple of decades, mobile phones have penetrated Sri Lanka at an unprecedented rate. The rate of adoption of cell phones in the country has been remarkably fast, and not gradual as in other nations. Yet, examination of the developmental impact of mobile phones has drawn surprisingly little attention in Sri Lanka. Therefore, this article attempts to investigate the empowering effect of mobile phones on dependent housewives in poor households of the country by using a mixed research method. Our research found that access to mobile phones was certainly empowering for these women: mobile phones unequivocally strengthened and expanded their social circle and support networks; they led them to domesticate technology, thus challenging negative societal attitudes toward women as technologically incompetent and timid; they reduced women’s information poverty; and opened them up to a newer, non-traditional fun space, which was a clear manifestation of choice and power. However, the women’s use of mobile phones was largely controlled within the household, mainly because they did not have their own income to maintain the phones, thus underlining the need for their financial autonomy. Those women who owned their mobile phones had more control over them than those who lacked legal ownership. To conclude, mobile phones can play a significant role in empowering poor women in Sri Lanka, and can be considered as a tool in the policy agenda for women’s empowerment by the government.

Private internal and international remittances are a major source of household money in Sri Lanka, yet their impact on household welfare has long been a research gap. Based on the Migration and Development Theory, this article examines how private remittances affect household expenditure behaviour, using nationally representative microdata and applying quasi-experimental methods. Private remittances have significantly increased household percapita expenditure and initiated positive behavioural changes via increased allocations for basic needs, human and physical capital investment. Compared with internal remittances, the impact of international remittance shows a strong potential for reducing poverty incidence and improving people's well-being: households in richer/richest expenditure quartiles and urban households invest in education, which supports the country's long-standing record of education. Rural households demonstrate favourable changes in spending behaviour with receiving private remittances. From a public policy standpoint, government favours migration so that remittances are more likely to flow. A proper remittance-transfer mechanism to encourage smooth remittance is thus required.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine whether family-to-business support acts as a job resource that attenuates the negative effects of work demands on the stress and creativity of women micro-entrepreneurs in the informal sector in Sri Lanka.Design/methodology/approachData from 359 women micro-entrepreneurs and their respective case officers in local government were used to test the hypothesized relationship between work demands and their creativity through the mediating mechanism of stress and the moderating effect of family-to-business support on the said relationship.FindingsWork demands reduced creativity through heightening the levels of stress faced by women micro-entrepreneurs. However, family-to-business support reduced the negative influence of work demands on creativity through stress.Practical implicationsWomen micro-entrepreneurs should build strong family ties to obtain support from family members. In addition, government training programs that target women micro-entrepreneurs should be extended to include their immediate family members.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature by examining whether family-to-business support buffers the negative effects of work demands for women micro-entrepreneurs in the informal sector. In doing so it makes a theoretical contribution by testing the key tenets of the JD-R model in entrepreneurial settings.

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For countries assessing whether to implement a cash transfer programme, an exante evaluation is vital to assess its potential impacts. This study simulates the impact of alternative cash transfer programmes on school attendance and poverty among Sri Lankan children. We find that cash transfer programmes targeting poor children would be the most costeffective way to reduce child poverty and encourage school attendance. If means-testing is not feasible, then programmes targeting the children in households with at least three school-age children would provide a suitable second-best solution. Our findings suggest that even a limited programme budget can provide significant impacts.