and the province of Kosovo<sup>2</sup> . With the exception of Albania, all of these countries were part of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY).

Throughout the paper comparisons will be made with the financing and expenditure patterns in the EU-15<sup>3</sup> and EU-12<sup>4</sup> countries. Explicit comparisons will also be made with Croatia and Slovenia. They are useful comparators because they were originally part of the SFRY, seceding in 1991, and have shared common aspirations of joining the EU<sup>5</sup> .

# _<u>B2 Data sources</u>_

The data used in this report are drawn from a number of sources:

- (i) <u>International databases:</u> The World Bank’s World Development Indicators 2007 database (WDI 2007) is the main source of health expenditure data<sup>6</sup> . For certain estimates that are not available in the WDI database, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Health for All 2007 database (HFA-DB 2007) is used. Most of the information on revenue sources is obtained from the WHO National Health Accounts (NHA) database.

- (ii) <u>Country institutions:</u> This report also relies on information provided to the World Bank by country institutions, such as ministries of health, ministries of finance, statistical institutes and institutes of public health. Some of this information has been published in World Bank reports, including poverty assessments, country and sector studies, and public expenditure and institutional reviews. These information sources are particularly valuable for data on Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo for which revenue and expenditure information is not yet available in the major databases.

- (iii) <u>Household surveys:</u> Data on private out-of-pocket expenditure are mainly drawn from household surveys, conducted by governments or by statistical or international organizations, often with the support of the World Bank. These include the Living Standards and Measurements Survey (LSMS) and the Household Budget Survey (HBS).

# _<u>B3 Data limitations</u>_

All of these sources are subject to certain limitations with respect to data availability and reliability, many of which are well-known and typical of the particular mode of data collection. In addition, the following limitations are of particular relevance to the data of the sub-region:

> 2 This definition of the Western Balkans reflects the World Bank’s operational classification of the subregions of Europe and Central Asia.

> 3 The EU-15 countries include all those that had joined the EU by 1995, namely Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Spain.

> 4 The EU-12 countries include those that joined the EU from May 2004 onwards, namely Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia.

> 5 Slovenia is already a member of the EU and Croatia, having signed a Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU in 2005, is advancing towards full membership.

> 6 Most of the WDI data are, in turn, derived from the latest WHO estimates, which are published in the WHO’s _World Health Report 2006,_ and then supplemented by published and unpublished World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) data.

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