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The problem of traffic congestion and the environmental issues related to air pollution are among the essential problems of urban management that metropolitan cities are trying to mitigate. Given that the contribution of motor vehicles to air pollution is significant, both goals are achieved by managing urban transport. Among the various methods of travel demand management, congestion pricing is a very efficient measure. In this study, it is tried to simultaneously increase the efficiency of the transportation network and reduce the environmental effects by using a bi-level model for the multi-modal network. For this purpose, the upper-level model includes minimization of the objective function, i.e., pollution emission costs, and overall commuting cost. The lower level also has a transportation network model that provides the condition of user equilibrium. Two pricing schemes, including cordon-based and link-based pricing, are used to investigate and assist policymakers. The genetic and Frank-Wolfe algorithms have been used to solve the bi-level programming model. The proposed algorithm is also applied for a real network in Isfahan-Iran. The results of the proposed model for different pricing strategies were compared. According to the results, both pricing schemes mitigate traffic congestion and pollution, and the demand was shifted from the private car mode to public transportation. However, link-based pricing provides better performance than cordon-based pricing. According to the results, if there are conditions of link-based pricing, this scheme can reduce pollution and increase tolls revenue.JEL Classification: R41, O18, R48, C61, C63, Q53

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Background: Determining and understanding of healthcare costs and its financing method is one of the most important subjects understatement of which can cause such major problems as excessive health costs for households due to the high rate of out-of-pocket expenses. Objectives: The current study aimed to analyze the healthcare costs and determine the share of Isfahan province, Iran, from the total healthcare costs of the country from 2006 to 2011. Materials and Methods: It was a retrospective and descriptive-analytical study. The required statistical data were gathered from statistical yearbooks of the country and the province, the website of the World Bank, the statistics provided by the Healthcare Department of Isfahan and Kashan Universities of Medical Sciences and the statistical data provided by Iran Statistics Center in 2011, all covering the period of six years from 2006 to 2011. Excel software was used for data analysis and computations of the research. Results: During this period, the annual growth average of healthcare and treatment costs were 12% and 20%, respectively. The share of the healthcare sector declined from 33% in 2006 to 25.4% in 2011. In other words, healthcare cost per capita, being about one second of the treatment cost per capita, reduced to a third of treatment per capita in 2011. Conclusions: Efficient allocation of financial resources in the healthcare system based on specific goals and strategies, coordination of public and private sectors in providing healthcare services, the rising share of the healthcare sector in GDP of the province and the country, and the preference of prevention over treatment measures can affect achieving the healthcare system goals and surmount challenges such as pay-out-of-pocket and rising healthcare costs, particularly the costs of integrated treatment with full performance.