Selected Topics - Health Economics

• Centre of Applied Economic Research UNSW, Health Economics Group
  "This research group is actively involved in developing, applying and evaluating economic and econometric methods for analysing the behaviour of patients, providers, managers and other decision makers in the health system.

Events

• School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW - Upcoming Events

Global policies and related documents

• Declaration of Santa Cruz de la Sierra
  Summit Conference on Sustainable Development, Santa Cruz, Bolivia, September 1996: Toward Sustainable Development in the Americas
• Millennium Development Goals
  "The International Development Goals set targets for reductions in poverty, improvements in health and education, and protection of the environment. The goals have been adopted by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the members of the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD, and many other agencies."
• World Development Report 2005: A Better Investment Climate For Everyone
  The World Bank’s Annual World Development Report for 2005, was launched on September 28, 2004. The Report focuses on what governments can do to improve the investment climates of their societies to increase growth and reduce poverty.

Reports, guidelines and projects

• AHRQ - MEPS Chartbook No.9 - The Uninsured in America 1996 - 2000 (PDF)
  "This report provides a statistical overview of the number of Americans without health insurance during the period 1996-2000."
• Better Health Systems for India's Poor: Findings, Analysis, and Option
  This 2002 study analyses India's health care system and its ability to keep up with the rapid changes in the approach to health care that have occurred in recent years. It identifies several key issues; the behaviour of the private market in health, the prevalence of chronic disease risk factors, the distribution of benefits from different types of private and public health services, the degree of financial protection in health care, the degree of protection for patient's interests and the laws and practices guiding health care.
• Beyond Public and Private?: Unorganised markets in health care delivery
  Presented at the 'Making Service Work for Poor People' World Development Report Workshop held in November, 2002, this paper contends that our understanding of the health sector is handicapped by trying to fit into language and concepts which do not adequately capture its changing realities and the political economies within which health sectors are embedded.
• Chronic Disease: An economic perspective
  "This major report, 'Chronic disease: an economic perspective', written by Marc Suhrcke, Rachel A. Nugent, David Stuckler and Lorenzo Rocco for the Oxford Health Alliance, demonstrates that chronic diseases – heart and lung disease, cancer and diabetes – are having a negative economic impact on both the developed and developing world and should thus be adequately addressed by domestic and international policy makers."
• Costing the Service Deliveries MDGs: primary education, health, water supply and sanitation
  The estimates discussed in this World Bank paper refer to the best available assessments of the direct costs, and financing gaps for selected targets, within the " service delivery Millennium Development Goals - MDSs " , as well as complementary infrastructure, capacity building, and technical assistance (TA) costs for reaching even the service costs MDGs have not been accounted for yet.
• Covering the Uninsured: How much would it cost?
  "To provide benchmarks for evaluating the costs of alternative proposals to provide insurance coverage for the uninsured, this American study presents two sets of cost estimates derived from medical spending patterns of lower or middle income people with private insurance plans and those of people with public insurance coverage during 1996-1998."
• Does earmarked donor funding make it more or less likely that developing countries will allocate their resources toward programmes that yield the greatest health benefits?
  This report by Catriona Waddington with commentaries from Philip Musgrove, Hilary Sunman and Debabar Banerji was published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organisation Sept. 2004.
• Data and dogma: the great Indian poverty debate
  This report by Angus Deaton, Research Program in Development Studies, Princeton University, Valerie Kozel, World Bank, September 2004 - examines the measurement of poverty in India and the possibility that the estimation of poverty reduction in India in the 1990s was too optimistic.
• Economic costs of ill health in the European Region
  "Evidence on the economic costs of ill health (or, reversely, the benefits of good health) is essential in assessing the economic return on health investment. But understanding what those costs/benefits mean and how they should be measured is equally essential. Public policy discourse on the economic consequences/costs of ill health has been handicapped by considerable confusion about what the term means. Noting that without an a priori definition of the cost concept at issue no meaningful discourse can ensue, we address three economic concepts: 1. The broadest, most relevant concept is social welfare costs/benefits, which attempts to capture the value people place on better health; 2. The more limited but more tangible concept, micro and macroeconomic costs, looks at, for instance, the foregone earnings of individuals/households and the GDP losses countries incur, respectively, due to the ill health of a household member or the national population; and 3. The most limited but nevertheless widely applied cost concept looks at the additional health-care expenditures that may be associated with ill health."
• Emerging Trends in International Law Concerning Global Infectious Disease Control
  In this article the author, David Fidler of the Indian University School of Law examines emerging trends in infectious disease control focusing on the critical role international cooperation has in controlling infectious disease.
• Expenditure Issues and Governance in Central America (PDF)
  This paper examines Central America's track record on inequality, poverty and the quality of fiscal adjustment in relation to economic growth: health and education outcomes: adequacy of social safety nets and governance. It then assesses the degree to which the track record can be traced to reforms in public expenditure and governance.
• Exploring the 70/30 Split: How Canada's Health Care System is Financed
  Today, about 70% of total Canadian health expenditures comes from the public purse. The remainder (about 30%) comes from private sources. In this report, the authors look at trends in financing and at variations in this 70/30 split across provinces and territories.
• Financing Drug Research: What Are the Issues? (PDF)
  Rising drug prices are placing an ever larger burden on family budgets and the economy. This paper outlines some of the key issues in evaluating patents and other mechanisms for financing prescription drug research. It then asseses how four proposed alternatives to the patent system perform by these criteria.
• Financing health promotion
  “…Health promotion is a complex, multi-sector activity. Within the health system, it is organized vertically in the form of public health campaigns or integrated in other health care interactions. Furthermore, health promotion can be encouraged on the health care market, for example through the introduction of financial incentives. This paper advocates for health promotion in any form as a necessary intervention for improving and maintaining population health. It is considered equally relevant for developed and developing countries, although different countries may want to employ different strategies. While still under-funded in many high-income countries the lack of funding for health promotion is generally most notorious in middle and low-income countries. In many of the latter groups, health promotion is also not included in health system financing arrangements. This [2007] paper explores how health promotion can be integrated in health system financing schemes. The analysis departs from the health systems financing framework and is based on the health financing functions: revenue collection, pooling and purchasing. Examples from different countries are presented to illustrate a number of innovative financing options for health promotion…”.
• A Framework to measure the impact of investments in health research
  "This paper describes the approach taken by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to develop a framework and indicators to measure the impact of health research. The development process included national and international consultations. Key methodology challenges and measurement requirements were identified. The framework that has resulted from this process includes definitions of key concepts, methodology, guidelines, identification of the different stakeholders for impact information and the individual concerns of each stakeholder group..."
• From Social Policy to an Open-Economy Social Contract in Latin America
  In this report Nancy Birdsall contends that after a decade of economic and political reforms that dramatically altered the structure of economies in Latin America, poverty and high income inequality remain entrenched. Integration into the global economy in the 1990s brought increased prosperity only to a small minority of households in most countries leaving behind not only the poor but the great majority of middle income households who are surprisingly poor by western standards.
• Getting better value for money for Sweden's healthcare system
  "This paper reviews the strengths and weaknesses of the Swedish healthcare system and the challenges that it will face in the future. It discusses ways to improve access to primary care, including different methods for paying GPs, whether access is less equitable than in other countries and the role of patient fees. The maximum waiting time guarantee for elective surgery is reviewed, along with ways of reducing regional variations in quality..."
• Global Employment Trends 2006
• Global Macroeconomic Consequences of Pandemic Influenza
  This paper, published by the Lowy Institute an independent policy think tank based in Sydney, Australia examines the implications of a pandemic influenza outbreak on the global economy. Their analysis finds that a pandemic would be expected to lead to: a fall in the labour force; an increase in the cost of doing business; a shift in consumer preferences; and a re-evaluation of country risk and finds that even a mild pandemic has significant consequences for global output, costing the world 1.4 million lives and approximately US$330 billion in lost output.
• Health financing policy: a guide for decision-makers
  "This [2008 WHO] paper elaborates an approach to health financing policy that countries can adapt to their own national context. This entails: (1) specification of a set of health finance policy objectives, grounded in the core values espoused by WHO; (2) a conceptual framework for analysing the organization and functions of the health financing system; and (3) recognition of the way in which key contextual factors, particularly fiscal constraints, affect a country’s ability to attain policy objectives or implement certain types of reforms. Because of the great diversity of national contexts, there is no ‘blueprint’ – no particular model or system of financing –that is appropriate for all countries. Hence, while the approach is fundamentally grounded in a common set of values and objectives, it permits analysis and recommendations that are country-specific and realistic. Key messages for decision-makers are to identify and address the harmful consequences of fragmentation in financing arrangements, and to ensure that the instruments of health financing policy are consistently aligned with the objectives."
• Health Financing Revisited: A Practitioner's Guide
  "Health Financing Revisited: A Practitioner's Guide addresses the major changes in global health and financing policy that have occurred over the past 10 years.... It assesses health financing policies for their ability to improve health outcomes, provide financial protection, and ensure consumer satisfaction – in a equitable, efficient, and financially sustainable manner. It is intended to equip policy-makers at global and country levels with the tools for navigating this extremely complex domain by providing an overview of health financing policy in developing countries and is a primer on major health financing and fiscal issues."
• Health Policies and Economic Blocs
  This Inter-American Development Bank paper analyses the roles of health goods and services markets within the regional integration process. It is a known fact that the consolidation of integrated markets is slower regarding social goods and services (as health and education) than among other goods and services (e.g. durable and non-durable consumption goods). The paper discusses the nature of the health sector and its global dimension, showing the peculiar features of health goods and services marked by economic complexity and information asymmetry.
• Health Systems in East Asia: What can Developing Countries Learn from Japan and the Asian Tigers
  This World Bank Report asserts that the health systems of Japan and the Asian Tigers--Hong Kong (China), the Republic of Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan (China)--and the recent reforms to them provide many potentially valuable lessons to East Asia's developing countries.
• How Much Medical Care Do The Uninsured Use, And Who Pays For It?
  This analysis by Jack Hadley Principle Research Associate at the Urban Institute in Washington and Jack Holahan Director Health Policy Center establishes benchmarks for the inevitable debate over the cost of expanding coverage: how much is being spent on care for the uninsured and where does the money come from?
• Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States 2004
  This report presents data on income, poverty, and health insurance coverage in the United States based on information collected in the 2005 and earlier Annual Social and Economic Supplements (ASEC) to the Current Population Survey (CPS) conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.
• Informal Payments in the Public Health Sector in Albania: A Qualitative Study
  This 2004 report by Taryn Vian, Kristina Gryboski, Zamira Sinoimeri and Rachel Hall Clifford “presents the results of a qualitative survey conducted by the Partners for Health Reformplus Project to examine the practice of informal payments for health in Albania’s public health system. The main objectives of the study were to better understand the perspectives and experiences of the public and providers about why informal payments occur, the process through which such payments are made, and what these payments mean in the context of Albanian society and the public health care delivery system. … The evidence from this study suggests that the practice of informal payments for health services is more common in large towns and cities, and in in-patient care settings, particularly for surgery, childbirth, and gynaecological care. Factors influencing informal payments in Albania include low salaries of health staff; a belief that health is extremely important and worth any price; a desire to get better quality care; fear of being denied treatment or missing the opportunity to get the best outcome possible; and the tradition of giving a gift to express gratitude.”
• International Trade in Health Services and the GATT
  Health ministries around the world face a new challenge: to assess the risks and respond to the opportunities of the increasing openness in health services under the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). This guide addresses the challenge by providing analytical tools to policy makers in health and trade ministeries alike who are involved in the liberalization agenda and specifically in the GATS negotiations.
• Investing in Children's Health: What are the Economic Benefits?
  In this paper published by WHO the authors; Paolo C Belli, Flavia Buestro and Alexander Preker argue that investing in children's health is a sound economic decision for government's to take even if the moral justifications for such decisions are not considered.
• Knowledge and Diplomacy: Science Advice in the United Nations System
  This report addresses the implications of the growing need for scientific input into United Nations programmes to advance human health and welfare as well as to better manage and conserve the environment and natural resources. It canvasses the ways in which the need for scientific input is being met, compares the methods used to other organizations and makes recommendations for directions in which the UN system might move.
• Learning to live with health economics
  "The WHO Regional Office for Europe has published on the Internet the book Learning to live with health economics, containing 25 health economics study modules, most of which are 15–20 pages long. The book has been prepared to assist the following groups of people to become more familiar with the importance of health economics in health care."
• Medical Savings Accounts: Lessons Learned from International Experience
  This paper reviews existing studies and data on the impact of Medical Savings Accounts on health systems, focusing primarily on Singapore but also reviewing more limited experiences in the United States, China, South Africa and Hong Kong.
• Measuring total health inequality: adding individual variation to group-level difference
  This study concludes that total health inequality estimates should be routinely reported alongside average levels of health in populations and groups, as they reveal important policy related information not otherwise knowable. This approach enables meaningful comparisons of inequality across countries and future analyses of the determinants of inequality.
• Poverty Alleviation through Geographic Targeting: How Much Does Disaggregation Help?
  Using recently completed poverty maps for Cambodia, Ecuador and Madagascar, the authors simulate the impact on poverty of transferring an exogenously given budget to geographically defined sub-groups of the population according to their relative poverty status. They find large gains from targeting smaller administrative units districts or villages.
• Private Health Insurance in OECD Countries. The Benefits and Costs for Individuals and Health Systems, (PDF)
  Private Health Insurance plays a significant role in health financing in some OECD countries and it covers at least 30% of the population in a third of the OECD members. It also plays a variety of roles, ranging from primary coverage for particular population groups to a supporting role for public systems. This paper assesses evidence on the effects of PHI in different national contexts and draws conclusions about its strengths and weaknesses.
• Projecting OECD Health and Long-term Expenditures: What are the main drivers?
  “….This paper proposes a comprehensive framework for projecting public heath and long-term care expenditures. Notably, it considers the impact of demographic and non-demographic effects for both health and long-term care. Compared with other studies, the paper extends the demographic drivers by incorporating death-related costs and the health status of the population."
• Public Financing in a Globalising World - Country Case Study: UK Financing of International Cooperation for Health
  This report examines international cooperation in health and its funding, through a rapid case study of UK financing of international cooperation for health. The study forms part of a United Nations Development Programme, Office of Development Studies Project on public finance in a globalising world.
• Public-private partnerships for hospitals
  While some forms of public–private partnerships are a feature of hospital construction and operation in all countries with mixed economies, there is increasing interest in a model in which a public authority contracts with a private company to design, build and operate an entire hospital. Drawing on the experience of countries such as Australia, Spain, and the United Kingdom, this paper reviews the experience with variants of this model. (published in - Bulletin of the World Health Organisation 2006;84:890-896)
• Review of Australian health economic evaluation – 245 interventions: what can we say about cost effectiveness?
  Background: There is an increasing body of published cost-utility analyses of health interventions which we sought to draw together to inform research and policy. Methods: To achieve consistency in costing base and policy context, study scope was limited to Australian-based cost-effectiveness analyses. Through a comprehensive literature review we identified 245 health care interventions that met our study criteria. Results: The median cost-effectiveness ratio was A$18,100 (~US$13,000) per QALY/DALY/LY (quality adjusted life year gained or, disability adjusted life year averted or life year gained). Some modalities tended to perform worse, such as vaccinations and diagnostics (median cost/QALY $58,000 and $68,000 respectively), than others such as allied health, lifestyle, in-patient interventions (median cost/QALY/DALY/LY all at ~A$9,000~US$6,500). Interventions addressing some diseases such as diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance or alcohol and drug dependence tended to perform well (median cost/QALY/DALY/LY < A$3,700, < US$5,000). Interventions targeting younger persons < 25 years (median cost/QALY/DALY/LY < A$41,200) tended to perform less well than those targeting adults > 25 years (median cost/QALY/DALY/LY < A$16,000). However, there was also substantial variation in the cost effectiveness of individual interventions within and across all categories. Conclusion: For any given condition, modality or setting there are likely to be examples of interventions that are cost effective and cost ineffective. It will be important for decision makers to make decisions based on the individual merits of an intervention rather than rely on broad generalisations. Further evaluation is warranted to address gaps in the literature and to ensure that evaluations are performed in areas with greatest potential benefit. [author abstract]
• Sales Growth of New Pharmaceuticals Across the Globe: The Role of Regulatory Regimes
  “…Prior marketing literature has overlooked the role of regulatory regimes in explaining international sales growth of new products. This paper [by Stefan Stremersch and Aurélie Lemmens for Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM) – May 2008] addresses this gap in the context of new pharmaceuticals (15 new molecules in 34 countries) and sheds light on the effect regulatory regimes have on new drug sales across the globe."
• Science, Economics and Politics of Malaria Vaccine Policy
  This report, by Andrew Farlow forms a submission to UK Department for International Development and The Malaria Vaccine Technology Roadmap and a response to the Tremonti Report to G8 Finance Ministers. "The report is especially interested in evaluating the proposal of two malaria vaccine goals – one earlier lower efficacy vaccine and one later higher efficacy vaccine based on product-and region-specific characteristics, as suggested in the recently-initiated “Malaria Vaccine Technology Roadmap” – in combination with an elaborate subsidy/R&D funding scheme called an ‘Advance Purchase Commitment/Contract’ (APC)….”
• Social Capital as a Health Determinant. How is it Measured?
  This 2002 article by Solange van Kemenade from Health Canada's Applied Research and Analysis Directorate examines the efficacy of the different methodological approaches used to measure social capital.
• Social capital in a changing society: cross sectional associations with middle aged female and male mortality rates
  This paper by Á. Skrabski, M. Kopp, I. Kawachi discusses the differences in gender and age group related mortality changes, focusing on the greater vulnerability of middle aged men compared with women and people in older age groups sharing the same socioeconomic and political circumstances.
• Social rights and economics: claims to health care and education in developing countries
  This World Bank Policy Research Paper analyses contemporary rights-based and economic approaches to health care and education in developing countries. The author assesses the foundations and uses of social rights in development, outlines an economic approach to improving health and education services, and then highlights the differences, similarities, and the hard questions that the economic critique poses for rights.
• Statistical Issues in Allocating Funds by Formula
  This report, from the US Committee on National Statistics, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education National Research Council of the National Academies identifies key issues concerning the design and use of formulas for fund allocation and advances recommendations for improving the process.
• The Arithmetic of Health Care
  An article by Janice MacKinnon, July 2004 Vol. 5. no. 3 Policy Matters, The Institute of Research on Public Policy, Canada, discussing the trend of health care costs increasing at a faster rate than government revenue in the Canadian health care system.
• The Demographic Dividend: A New Perspective on the Economic Consequences of Population Change
  "This report reviews the debate over the effects of demographic change on economic growth and examines the research evidence on the economic impact of changes in age structure. It also examines the relationship between population change and economic development. Finally, it discusses how changes in the age structure interact with labor-market, health, and education policies to contribute to economic growth."
• The 'diagonal' approach to Global Fund financing: a cure for the broader malaise of health systems?
  The potentially destructive polarisation between 'vertical' financing (aiming for disease-specific results) and ‘horizontal’ financing (aiming for improved health systems) of health services in developing countries has found its way to the pages of Foreign Affairs and the Financial Times. The opportunity offered by 'diagonal' financing (aiming for disease-specific results through improved health systems) seems to be obscured in this polarisation. In April 2007, the board of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria agreed to consider comprehensive country health programmes for financing. The new International Health Partnership Plus, launched in September 2007, will help low-income countries to develop such programmes. The combination could lead the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to a much broader financing scope. This evolution might be critical for the future of AIDS treatment in low-income countries, yet it is proposed at a time when the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is starved for resources. It might be unable to meet the needs of much broader and more expensive proposals. Furthermore, it might lose some of its exceptional features in the process: its aim for international sustainability, rather than in-country sustainability, and its capacity to circumvent spending restrictions imposed by the International Monetary Fund. The authors [Gorik Ooms, Wim Van Damme, Brook K Baker, Paul Zeitz and Ted Schrecker] believe that a transformation of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria into a Global Health Fund is feasible, but only if accompanied by a substantial increase of donor commitments to the Global Fund. The transformation of the Global Fund into a ‘diagonal’ and ultimately perhaps ‘horizontal’ financing approach should happen gradually and carefully, and be accompanied by measures to safeguard its exceptional features. [Globalization and Health - March 2008, 4:6]
• The Economics of Early Childhood Policy: What the Dismal Science Has to Say About Investing in Children
  "…Scientific discoveries over the past two decades have transformed the way in which researchers, policymakers, and the public think about early childhood. For example, recent research in brain science has provided a biological basis for prevailing theories about early child development, and cost-benefit analysis has reoriented some of the discussion about early childhood toward prevention programs. Several recent reports have been particularly helpful in translating research findings into practical information that improves policy. This paper [by M. Rebecca Kilburn and Lynn A. Karoly] summarizes the contributions from the field of economics, which has played an increasingly prominent role in recent discussions about early childhood policy. The insights from economics also have broader implications for social programs focused on prevention, especially during childhood, rather than later-in-life remediation. This research will be of value to individuals who are interested in early childhood policy, including decision makers in the public and private sectors, service providers, and the public more generally."
• The incidence of public expenditures on health and education
  As a part of documenting the experience with public spending on health and education for World Development Report 2004, a review of results on the expenditure incidence of public spending was undertaken. This site comprises three tables that document the findings and sources for those results.
• Tough choices: investing in health and development: Experiences from the national follow-up to the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health
  This WHO report presents country experiences in developing and shaping work to address long-term planning for the health sector. It identifies areas of action to which the national commissions have contributed, from mobilizing political will and building much-needed evidence, to strengthening national planning processes. These lay the groundwork for sustainable improvements in health for the world’s poor people.The report clarifies the most intractable challenges that have impeded faster health progress, and gives concrete examples of how countries have started to address them through an integrated approach to health sector development and financing.
• Transferring the financial risks of pharmaceutical benefits from a large health care provider in Argentina to a consortium of pharmaceutical companies
  The objective of this study was to determine the impact of a policy implemented in 1997 in Argentina of transferring the risk for the cost of outpatient medications and cancer treatment drugs to a consortium of pharmaceutical companies in exchange for a fixed monthly payment.
• Valuing Health for Regulatory Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
  "Promoting human health and safety by reducing exposures to risks and harms through regulatory interventions is among the most important responsibilities of the government. Such efforts encompass a wide array of activities in many different contexts: improving air and water quality; safeguarding the food supply; reducing the risk of injury on the job, in transportation, and from consumer products; and minimizing exposure to toxic chemicals. Valuing Health for Regulatory Cost-Effectiveness Analysis provides useful recommendations for how to measure health-related quality-of- life impacts for diverse public health, safety, and environmental regulations."
• Voluntary Health Insurance in the European Union (PDF)
  This study provides an overview markets for private or voluntary health insurance in the European Union. It examines the role voluntary health insurance plays in different EU member states and covers issues such as the determinants of demand for voluntary health insurance, the structure, conduct and performance of national markets and access, equity and consumer protection in these markets.
• What impact do prescription drug charges have on efficiency and equity? Evidence from high-income countries
  "As pharmaceutical expenditure continues to rise, third-party payers in most high-income countries have increasingly shifted the burden of payment for prescription drugs to patients. A large body of literature has examined the relationship between prescription charges and outcomes such as expenditure, use, and health, but few reviews explicitly link cost sharing for prescription drugs to efficiency and equity. This article reviews 173 studies from 15 high-income countries and discusses their implications for important issues sometimes ignored in the literature; in particular, the extent to which prescription charges contain health care costs and enhance efficiency without lowering equity of access to care."
• WHO presentations at the 4th Annual International Health Economics Association (IHEA) World Congress, San Francisco, June 2003
  WHO presentations at this conference included papers on health systems performance assessment, effective coverage, measuring health system coverage, understanding household catastrophic health expenditure, measuring income, health financing policies, inequalities in health and health of the poor and WHO health system responsiveness.

Educational resources

• Community Tool Box
  Provided by the University of Kansas
• Education for Sustainable Development Kit
  The Education for Sustainable Development Toolkit by Rosalyn McKeown is a manual for individuals and organizations from both the education and community sectors. This resource addresses the potentially powerful alliance of school systems and communities working together to reach local sustainability goals.
• Freedom as Progress
  A profile of economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen by Laura Wallace
• Health Data Tools and Statistics: SurvCost
  Tool to help public health officials estimate the cost of Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) systems at national, region/province, district, and health facility levels. SurvCost may also be of use to managers of other disease surveillance systems who wish to estimate their costs.
• Health Economics Information Resources: A self-study course
  A series of high quality learning modules and information resources on health economics presented by the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
• HORIZON Communications Solutions
  The purpose of this site is to provide a forum for the presentation of solutions to vital concerns in the areas of health, population, development and the environment.
• Learning for Sustainability (LfS)
  "This guide to on-line resources (formerly NRM-changelinks) is designed for government agency staff, NGOs and other community leaders wanting to improve social learning and collective action initiatives to support sustainable development. It is relevant for those working in a number of sectors such as environment, public health and education. The site also aims to provide links to resources that can be used across sectors."
• Sustainable Development Primer
  This primer is a guide to new thinking and solutions in sustainable development. It includes background articles, links to network documents and suggestions for further exploration on the internet.
• Sustainable World
  This site has been developed to help government officials, students, researchers and others interested in development issues to find sources of national economic and social data online. It also examines some of the issues which complicate the work of anyone wanting to use this data.
• World in Your Pocket: A Handbook of International Health Economic Statistics
  "…Designed to be an easy and portable international reference guide to indicators of health care and health economics. We define "economic" broadly to include both means (personal and formal resources) and ends (health outcomes)… [The handbook] includes the most current available data, presented in separate sections on health status, health care costs, health resources, health resource utilization and health system performance. The basic unit of observation is the individual country. Indicators are reported at the international level."

Organisations and Networks

UN and multinational

• International Health Economics Association
  The International Health Economics Association was formed to increase communication among health economists, foster a higher standard of debate in the application of economics to health and health care systems, and assist young researchers at the start of their careers.
• Structural Adjustment Participatory Review International Network
  SAPRIN is a global network established to expand and legitimise the role of civil society in economic policymaking and to strengthen the organised challenge to structural adjustment programs by citizens around the globe. The network is working with a broad range of citizens' groups in various countries on four continents to organise public processes to assess the real impact of World Bank and IMF-supported economic-reform programs and to chart a new course for the future.
• WHO Commission on Macroeconomics and Health
  The purpose of this WHO commission is to examine the impact of health on development and to produce reports and scholarly studies on health related interventions and their impact on economic growth and equality in developing countries.
• UN economic and Social Development Website
  This site outlines the United Nations economic and social development programmes
• WWW Virtual Library: Sustainable Development

Government

• OHE - Office of Health Economics
  "The Office of Health Economics provides independent research, advisory and consultancy services on policy implications and economic issues within the pharmaceutical, health care and biotechnology sectors."

Non Government

• Australian Council for International Development)
  The coordinating body for some 90 Australian non-government organisations working in the field of overseas aid and development
• Both ENDS: Environment and Development Service for NGOs (Netherlands)<br>Both Ends aims to contribute to responsible management of nature and the natural environment by strengthening fellow NGOs and community groups working on these issues, especially in developing countries.
• Center for Policy Analysis on Trade and Health
  The Center for Policy Analysis on Trade and Health (CPATH) is a project of the Center for Policy Analysis, which is non-profit organisation. It is dedicated to protecting and expanding access to health care, water, and other vital human services. CPATH links health, health care, and global trade communities to create economically and socially just, democratically accountable, and environmentally sustainable solutions to the negative effects of economic globalisation.
• Centre for Environment and Human Settlements
  "An international centre providing teaching, training, research & development and other knowledge-based services & resources in the fields of environment and human settlements for developing countries"
• Community Development Society International (CDS)
  Founded in 1969,The Community Development Society is a professional association for community development practitioners and citizen leaders around the world. CDS members represent a variety of fields: education, health care, social services, government, utilities, economic development practitioners, citizen groups, and more.
• Development and Peace Foundation (Germany)
  "Founded in 1986, on the initiative of Willy Brandt. As a cross-party, non-profit-making organization the foundation argues for the creation of a new political order in a world that is increasingly dominated by economic and technological globalization and where democratically grounded politics is in danger of disappearing. The work of the Foundation is based on three principles: global responsibility, an interdisciplinary perspective, and cross-party dialogue."
• DFID Health Resource Centre
  The Health Resources Centre's mission is based on the need to develop national and international responses and interventions that directly improve the health and well-being of individuals living in the poorest countries of the world. To this end the HRC provides technical assistance, rapid response policy briefings and knowledge support on all aspects of international public health to the UK Department for International Development and its partners in developing countries.
• Earth Charter Initiative
  The object of the Earth Charter is to set forth a vision of the fundamental principles of a global partnership for sustainable development and principles of a global partnership for sustainable development and environmental conservation.
• Global System for Sustainable Development (MIT)
  A Consortium for sustainable development, this organisation is committed to reducing the gap between knowledge and policy through innovative uses of advanced information technologies to create new knowledge to facilitate transitions toward sustainability.
• Grameen Bank
  The Grameen Bank provides credit to the poorest of the poor in rural Bangladesh without any collateral. The Bank see credit as a cost effective weapon to fight poverty and it serves as a catalyst in the overall development of socioeconomic conditions of the poor who have been kept out of the banking orbit on the grounds that they are poor and therefore not bankable.
• Green CrossRoads
  Green Cross International (GCI) is a global, non-aligned networking organisation working in the area of environment and sustainable development. It creates partnerships to promote global value change.
• ID21 Development Research
  The ID21 Development Research reporting service offers hundreds of summaries of problem-solving work on critical development dilemmas around the world.
• InnoVal-HC
  InnoVal-HC is an independent not-for-profit scientific organisation dedicated to research into the principles of economic evaluation of health technologies and their application. InnoVal-HC is associated with the University of Applied Economic Sciences Ludwigshafen, Germany.
• International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
  ICIMOD is a multidisciplinary, area focussed, mountain based organisation committed to improving the living conditions of mountain communities in sustainable ways. It focuses on the Hindu Kush Himalayan Region providing searchable information resources on sustainable development issues in mountain areas including catalogues, databases and links to the global information network.
• International Institute for Communication and Development (The Netherlands)
  The International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) assists developing countries to realise locally owned sustainable development by harnessing the potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs). IICD works with its partner organisations in selected countries, helping local stakeholders to assess the potential uses of ICTs in development.
• International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
  IIED is an independent, non-profit organisation promoting sustainable patterns of world development through collaborative research, policy studies, networking and knowledge dissemination.
• Loka Institute (USA)
  The Loka Institute is a non-profit research and advocacy organisation concerned with the social political and environmental repercussions of science and technology
• Overseas Development Institute (ODI)
  “ODI is Britain's leading independent think-tank on international development and humanitarian issues. Its mission is to inspire and inform policy and practice which lead to the reduction of poverty, the alleviation of suffering and the achievement of sustainable livelihoods in developing countries. We do this by locking together high-quality applied research, practical policy advice, and policy-focused dissemination and debate. We work with partners in the public and private sectors, in both developing and developed countries.”
• Panos Institute
  "The Panos Institute specialises in generating and providing information for development and in stimulating public debate on environmental and social development issues. Its central belief is that diversity or 'pluralism' in civil society underpins sustainable, people-centred development"
• PRAXIS: Social policy and development
  This site provides access to a vast array of archival resources on international and comparative social development in order to further the promotion of positive social change through informed action.
• Right-to-Know Network
  The Right-to-Know Network which is based in Washington USA provides access to numerous databases and resources on the environment. With the information available on RTK NET, you can identify specific factories and their environmental effects; find permits issued under environmental statutes; and identify civil cases filed.
• RRojas Databank The political economy of development studies
  The purpose of this site is to publish electronic versions of books, papers, notes and statistical and analytical material related to economics and development studies and to facilitate easy access to major sources of academic information for development studies.
• Second Nature
  "A nonprofit organization working to help colleges and universities expand their efforts to make environmentally sustainable and just action a foundation of learning and practice. Education for Sustainability (EFS) is a lifelong learning process that leads to an informed and involved citizenry having the creative problem-solving skills, scientific and social literacy, and commitment to engage in responsible individual and cooperative actions."
• Sustainable Development Communications Network
  A group of leading civil society organisations seeking to accelerate the implementation of sustainable development through broader, integrated information and communications about what we know. The network focuses its efforts on integrating Internet communications into broader communication strategies.
• Sustainable Measures
  Sustainable Measures develops indicators that measure progress towards a sustainable economy society and environment
• United for a Fair Economy (USA)
  "A national, independent, non-partisan organization that puts a spotlight on the dangers of growing income, wage and wealth inequality in the United States and coordinates action to reduce the gap. It provides education resources, works with grassroots organizations, conducts research, and supports creative and legislative action to reduce inequality"
• Women in Environment and Development
  "An international advocacy network actively working to transform society to achieve environmental justice for all through the empowerment of women, in all their diversity, and their equal participation with men in decision-making from grassroots to global arenas"
• Women in Global Science and Technology Network (WIGSAT)
  WIGSAT is an international non-profit organisation. Its mission is to promote the contributions women make in science and technology for development, and to help NGOs, governments, bilateral and multilateral agencies and women themselves to understand the gender dimensions of S &T and the implications of this for development policy and practice.

Academic Institutions with particular focus in this area

• Centre for Health Economics
  Located at the University of York (United Kingdom), the Centre's main research areas are: economic evaluation of health technologies, outcome measurement, primary care, community care, the determinants of health
• Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation (CHERE)
  Located at the University of Technology, Sydney (Australia), the Centre's work is organised around four strategic themes: development and application of methods of economic evaluation; investigation of the determinants of health and variations therein; finance, organisation and planning of health interventions; critique of economic methodology.
• Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis (CHEPA) - [Canada]
  An interdisciplinary research centre based at McMaster University committed to producing high quality, original socially relevant research in health policy analysis and economics, and to disseminating research evidence to decision makers in the health sector. Its research spans a broad range of topics including organisation, funding, and delivery of healthcare, the evaluation of healthcare programs and technologies, the measurement of health at the individual and population level, the determinants of population health, and the process of health policy making.
• Centre for the Economics of Health
  Located at The University Wales, Bangor (United Kingdom), the objectives of this centre are to develop a programme of research and to provide policy support to the National Assembly for Wales from a standpoint of recognition of the wider economics of improving the health of the population.
• Centro de Investigación en Economía y Gestión de la Salud
  located at Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (Spain)
• Health Economics
  The Socioeconomic Institute, University of Zurich Switzerland, Health Economics research programme focuses on the economic valuation of life and health; the physician as supplier of medical services; hospital services and their payment; cross border care; prevention and the optimal design of health insurance contracts.
• Health Economics Research Centre
  Located at the University of Oxford, the centre is the result of a collaboration between the Division of Public Health and Primary Health Care and the NHS Executive Anglia and Oxford. It performs applied and methodological research in health economics.
• Health Economics Research Group
  This group aims to undertake high quality policy relevant research and to contribute to the development of evaluation methodologies. The current research programme has a unifying focus on economic evaluation of health technologies. Across the range of applications run a number of common methodological issues including the nature and form of controls or comparisons, the measurement and valuation of benefits and the integration of cost and benefit information.
• Health Economics Resource Center (HERC)
  Located at the University of York (United Kingdom), the Health Economics Resource Centre provides a suite of rooms that combine the teaching materials, computing facilities, information resources, and secretarial support used in the full range of health economics training programmes offered by the Department of Economics and Related Sciences.
• Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics
  Located at the University of Pennsylvania (USA), this Institute is a formal cooperative venture among Penn's schools of Medicine, Business, Nursing, and Dental Medicine, it works to improve the health of the public through multidisciplinary studies on the medical, economic, social, and ethical issues that influence how health care is organised, financed, managed, and delivered.
• University of Sheffield Health Economics and Decision Science
  The purpose of HEDS is to promote excellence in national and international health care resource allocation decisions, through applied and theoretical research funded by the public and private sector; and supporting the effective implementation of the results of such research through education, training and management interventions.
• World Institute of Development, University of the UN
  The first research and training centre of the United Nations University and located in Helsinki Finland, WIDER is dedicated to the study of major global economic processes for the purpose of fostering widespread improvements in human life and society.
• School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW
• School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW - Research

Key Conferences, conference and workshop reports

Coming conferences

Conference reports

• Global Knowledge for Development in the Information Age
  An international conference held in Toronto, June 1997 which aimed to foster cooperation between the foundation community and multilateral agencies in the area of science and technology for development.
• Declaration of Santa Cruz de la Sierra
  This statement came out of the conference on sustainable development in the Americas held in Santa Cruz, Bolivia September 1996
• Voluntary Health Insurance in Developing Countries
  This conference which was held at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, March 2005, canvassed the impact of voluntary health insurance in developing countries.
• WIDER Thinking Ahead: the Future of Development Economics
  Papers presented at the Jubilee Wider Conference held in Helsinki in June 2005 covered a broad range of topics. These included growth, trade and finance for development, poverty and inequality, strategies for poverty reduction, conflict and economic policy making for development.
• World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2005: Taking Responsibility for Tough Choices
  The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum held in Davos Switzerland, January 2005, called for immediate action on the tough issues of poverty, climate change, education, equitable globalisation and good global governance, identifying these issues as the responsibility of all of society.

Journals, Newsletters, Forums

• Health Economics Policy and Law
  International trends highlight the confluence of economics, politics and legal considerations in the health policy process. Health Economics, Policy and Law will serve as a forum for scholarship on health policy issues from these perspectives, and will be of use to academics, policy makers and health care managers and professionals.

Bibliographies, Libraries

Public health bookshops

• Public Health bookshop