Principles of health economics for developing countries

Health indicators in developing countries have shown impressive improvements in the past 50 years. But the health status of individuals in these countries remains well below its potential level, and many people lack access to suitable health care and health-promoting services. This book attempts to provide a suitable economic framework that will foster an understanding of the allocation of broadly defined health care resources, and to aid the design and analysis of policies that affect health outcomes. It addressed both positive and normative issues in the economics of health, and in this sense is similar in approach, if not in scope, to public finance texts. Indeed, in many respects, the book represents an application of public economics, including developments in the past 20 years in the economics of information and incentives, to the analysis of health care resource allocations. Part I focuses on health outcomes and the relationships between such outcomes and orthodox variables that measure macroeconomic performance. Part II adopts a more macroeconomic focus in analyzing demand and supply in health care markets. Part III takes on a more normative approach, reviewing both projects and policies. An attempt to address some broad issues in the design and implementation of national health systems can be found in the last chapter.