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Budgeting in Germany is characterized by procedural continuities which have developed more and more into dignified parts of the German financial constitution. This is true for the way budgets are prepared at the executive level, controlled in parliament and audited. Procedural accuracies do, however, mean little for budgetary outcomes. Typical for these is that hard choices tend to be avoided by the frequent use of off-budget funds, and that, so far, mere lip-service has been paid to the problem of reducing the deficit. Budgetary compromises necessary to reconcile cut-back rhetoric and ever-growing expenditure demands have become more complicated because in most cases the support reform of entitlements. By adding huge new

It is well known that mental health disorders cause substantial functional limitations and disability (Surgeon General, 1999). Less well known is the central role that mental health plays in economic disparities. The prevalence of depressive disorders is almost 3 times as high among individuals in the bottom 20% than among individuals in the top 20% of the income distribution, a much steeper gradient than for hypertension, heart disease, arthritis, chronic pain, or the number of medical problems (Sturm & Gresenz, 2002). In addition, individuals with mental disorders are less likely to have savings than individuals with physical health problems and the disparity widens with advancing age (Gresenz & Sturm, 2000).

This symposium examines recent developments in public financial management in the European Community (EC). Prior to 1994, this community had twelve country members. It is almost impossible to cover all aspects of the public financial management development of all EC country members. Moreover, the sympo-sium does not cover the most recent changes made by each EC member in order to reach a fiscal unification set for 1992. Five of the six articles for the symposium cover Denmark, Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain. The sixth article examines common features of public financial management developments as well as revenue and outlay trends in all EC countries.

The doubling of obesity in the U.S. over the last 25 years has led policymakers and physicians to encourage weight loss, but few methods of weight loss are effective. One promising avenue is pharmacotherapy. However, little is known about the use of anti-obesity drugs. This paper describes the market for anti-obesity drugs and studies the utilization of anti-obesity drugs using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey for 1996–2002, a period that is interesting because it covers the introduction of three, and the withdrawal of two, anti-obesity drugs from the market.

Our results point to wide sociodemographic disparities in anti-obesity drug use. Women are almost 200% more likely than men to use anti-obesity drugs. Hispanics and African-Americans are only 39% as likely as Whites to use them. Those with prescription drug coverage are 46% more likely to use anti-obesity drugs.

We also find that the vast majority of subjects who are approved to take these drugs are not taking them, and a significant number who are not approved to take the drugs are taking them. We find strong evidence that the well-publicized 1997 withdrawal of fenfluramine and dexfenfluramine had a chilling effect on the overall market for anti-obesity drugs. We find little difference in observed characteristics between those who took the withdrawn drugs and those who took the other anti-obesity drugs in the market.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) frame the urgent call for actions by all global stakeholders to provide economic, social, and ecological prosperity (United Nations, 2021). The goal is to create a better world for the greatest number of people. The stakeholders of SDGs are primarily UN member states, regardless of the size of their resources or population (United Nations, 2019). However, autonomous communities are included as well as companies. The Isle of Man (IoM) is located in the Irish Sea and is an autonomous crown dependency (cd) of the British monarchy with almost eight times fewer inhabitants than one of Europe's largest employer, Volkswagen, has employees (Brandtjen, 2019; Volkswagen AG, 2020). In 2016, the whole Isle was designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve (BR) and is the only entire nation to be a member of this worldwide network. The Biosphere programme focuses on sustainable development, conservation, and education within the framework of the UN's 17 SDGs (Isle of Man Government, 2021; UNESCO, 2019). But how does this programme help the IoM to develop? Did this programme help the IoM to get through the COVID-19 pandemic? Is the IoM a model for other nations to become UNESCO BRs and to create an environment for corporate SDGs to be fulfilled?