Some call economics the dismal science, I call it useful. When it comes to obesity one would argue that it offers the mechanisms to prevent a needless tide of early deaths, spiralling NHS costs and sore eyes on the beach.… Read More »My big fat tax
Back in 2005, NICE and the Department of Health here in the UK set about trying to figure out the level at which society valued a QALY, and also whether different QALYs should be assigned different values. The results of… Read More »Is a QALY a QALY or not? The SVQ project and the value of life
The UK Government recently announced its plans for “Public Health England”, with ‘nudging’ high on the agenda. What the government considers a ‘nudge’ is unclear, though it seems to mean giving people the opportunity to improve their own health. Here’s… Read More »The economics of the ‘nudge’: Why the UK government’s new public health policy won’t work
This month the American Economic Review publishes it’s top 20 articles from its 100 year history. As one might have hoped, we see Kenneth Arrow’s 1963 paper, “Uncertainty and the Welfare Economics of Medical Care“, on the list. Having published… Read More »100 years of the American Economic Review: The top 20 articles
The UK government recently announced plans to “measure happiness” in the country, at an apparent cost of £2 million. The Prime Minister’s argument for this being that GDP is too crude a measure for the achievements of a nation or,… Read More »Satisfaction with life: The UK government’s bid to measure happiness
Here we have the first post, of which there will soon be many, that you can read on the brand new Academic Health Economists’ Blog. The Blog has been started because we feel there is something lacking in the current… Read More »Post #1