Resources Repository
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Working PaperPublication 2018Valuing Nonfatal Health Risk Reductions
This paper explores approaches for valuing nonfatal risk reductions associated with policy choices in low- …
This paper explores approaches for valuing nonfatal risk reductions associated with policy choices in low- and middle-income countries. The approach for valuation ideally would be based on estimates of individuals’ willingness to pay for changes in their own risks. However, high quality valuation research is not available for many nonfatal conditions even in high-income settings. Typically, two approaches are used either alone or in combination as rough proxies. The first involves applying an estimate of…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Preferences/Values | Policy/Regulation | Health Outcomes | Decision Analysis | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Social Determinants | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Global | Critical Thinking/Analysis -
Working PaperPublication 2015Benefit-Cost Analysis and the Cities
This paper provides a short introduction to the use of benefit-cost analysis to assess interventions …
This paper provides a short introduction to the use of benefit-cost analysis to assess interventions undertaken at the city or municipal level. It introduces the concepts that underlie the conduct of benefit-cost analysis, describes the major analytic components, and discusses how to tailor the analysis to the characteristics of the policy and the resources available. It concludes with a list of references for those interested in learning more.
Priority Setting/Ethics | Preferences/Values | Policy/Regulation | Decision Analysis | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Social Determinants | Environmental Health | Climate/Environment | Culture/Society | Economics/Finance | Government/Law | North America | Critical Thinking/Analysis -
Working PaperPublication 2024Economic Evaluation Primer
Economic evaluation is a powerful tool, encouraging the systematic collection and assessment of the evidence …
Economic evaluation is a powerful tool, encouraging the systematic collection and assessment of the evidence needed to support sound policy decisions. In low- and middle-income countries, where resources are especially scarce and needs are very great, such decisions are exceptionally difficult. In these settings, economic evaluation can be particularly useful in determining how to best improve health and welfare. Typically, cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) is used to prioritize interventions within the health care sector. This approach…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Policy/Regulation | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Global -
ArticlePublication 2022COVID-19 Response: The Need for Economic Evaluation
COVID-19-related policies are fraught with trade-offs. Many of these trade-offs involve dimensions that can be …
COVID-19-related policies are fraught with trade-offs. Many of these trade-offs involve dimensions that can be quantitatively weighed using economic evaluation, such as those between health and cost outcomes. Other types of dimensions, such as those involving equity or autonomy, can be harder to quantify but should be considered in a comprehensive health policy decision-making context nonetheless. The authors of this New England Journal of Medicine Perspectives article outline how methods of economic evaluation and decision…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Policy/Regulation | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Global | North America -
ArticlePublication 2021Health Opportunity Cost Threshold for CEA in the U.S.
Using a modeled cohort of 100,000 individuals in the United States with private health insurance, …
Using a modeled cohort of 100,000 individuals in the United States with private health insurance, the authors simulated the short-term mortality and morbidity resulting from increased premium related cancelation of insurance coverage. The authors used this model to estimate cost-effectiveness thresholds, in dollars per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained based on health opportunity costs. They reported the number of persons who dropped insurance coverage, resulting number of additional deaths and QALYs lost from mortality and…
Evidence Synthesis | Priority Setting/Ethics | Policy/Regulation | Health Outcomes | Microsimulation | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health Systems | Health/Medicine | North America -
ArticlePublication 2017Using Cost-Effectiveness Analysis to Address Health Equity Concerns
This article serves as a guide to using cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) to address health equity …
This article serves as a guide to using cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) to address health equity concerns. The authors introduce the "equity impact plane," a tool for considering trade-offs between improving total health-the objective underpinning conventional CEA-and equity objectives, such as reducing social inequality in health or prioritizing the severely ill. Improving total health may clash with reducing social inequality in health, for example, when effective delivery of services to disadvantaged communities requires additional costs. Who…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Preferences/Values | Policy/Regulation | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health Systems | Health/Medicine | Global -
ArticlePublication 2016Using Cost-Effectiveness Evidence to Inform Health Service Provision
This article discusses three challenges of using cost-effectiveness thresholds to inform whether a third-party payer …
This article discusses three challenges of using cost-effectiveness thresholds to inform whether a third-party payer will fund a particular service. First, how is the appropriate cost-effectiveness threshold - or threshold range - to be determined? (And should there be a single threshold or multiple thresholds?) Second, how can the valuation of health benefits be refined to better capture the value of treatments to patients and to the economy as a whole? Third, how should a…
Evidence Synthesis | Priority Setting/Ethics | Policy/Regulation | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health/Medicine | Global -
ArticlePublication 2016“Nudges” in Law and Policy
This article describes research on Americans’ preferences for types of “nudges” in the context of …
This article describes research on Americans’ preferences for types of “nudges” in the context of law and public policy—those that target “system 1” thinking, meaning the intuitive, emotion-based mechanisms, such as graphic warnings and default rules, versus those that target “system 2” thinking, the rational, deliberative form of cognition, such as statistical information or education-based messages.
Priority Setting/Ethics | Preferences/Values | Decision Psychology | Policy/Regulation | Culture/Society | Government/Law | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2022Vaccinations versus Lockdowns to Prevent COVID-19 Mortality
This analysis estimated the costs associated with preventing Covid-19 deaths by vaccinations versus lockdowns. Publicly …
This analysis estimated the costs associated with preventing Covid-19 deaths by vaccinations versus lockdowns. Publicly available datasets from the Israeli Ministry of Health were used to model the parameters of the pandemic in Israel. The Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker was used for quantitative data on government policies. Data on the Israeli economy were taken from the Central Bureau of Statistics. The models demonstrate that the first lockdown prevented 1022 COVID-19 deaths at the cost…
Decision Theory | Policy/Regulation | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | State-Transition | Decision Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Economics/Finance | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Middle East & North Africa