Resources Repository
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ArticlePublication 2023Benefits and Costs of COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates
Written mid-pandemic, this article evaluates the direct costs and health benefits of requiring COVID-19 vaccinations …
Written mid-pandemic, this article evaluates the direct costs and health benefits of requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for U.S. federal employees and healthcare and private sector workers. These mandates were controversial and some were halted by litigation. If they had been implemented as intended, the net benefits would depend on the course of the pandemic. If a more transmissible variant (such as Omicron) emerges, the net benefits may be large. If the pandemic instead fades, the benefits…
Benefit-Cost Analysis | Policy/Regulation | Mathematical Models | State-Transition | Infectious Diseases | Business/Industry | Economics/Finance | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | North America -
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…
Benefit-Cost Analysis | Policy/Regulation | Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Global | North America -
ArticlePublication 2022Emerging Therapies for COVID-19: The Value of Information From More Clinical Trials
The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated time-sensitive policy and implementation decisions regarding new therapies in the face …
The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated time-sensitive policy and implementation decisions regarding new therapies in the face of uncertainty. This study aimed to quantify consequences of approving therapies or pursuing further research. The authors used a cohort state-transition model for hospitalized patients with COVID-19 to estimate quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) and costs associated with multiple drug regimens and usual care. For each they assessed immediate approval, use only in research, emergency use authorization or reject. They conducted cost-effectiveness…
Benefit-Cost Analysis | Policy/Regulation | Value of Information | State-Transition | Infectious Diseases | Economics/Finance | North America | Europe -
ArticlePublication 2020Premature Deaths, Statistical Lives, and Years of Life
This article clarifies some misconceptions about mortality risk and economic valuation. The mortality effects of …
This article clarifies some misconceptions about mortality risk and economic valuation. The mortality effects of exposure to environmental hazards such as air pollution are often described by the estimated number of “premature deaths” and the economic value of an exposure reduction as the number of “statistical lives saved” multiplied by the “value per statistical life.” These terms can be misleading because the number of deaths advanced by exposure cannot be determined from mortality data; it…
Benefit-Cost Analysis | Policy/Regulation | Preferences/Values | Health Outcomes | Environmental Health | College | Graduate | Critical Thinking/Analysis -
BookPublication 2019Non-Communicable Disease Prevention: Best Buys, Wasted Buys, Contestable Buys
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death worldwide, and the majority of these …
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death worldwide, and the majority of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. This book provides practical guidelines and lessons learned through real-world case studies. It is intended to be informative to NCD program managers, policy officers and decision-makers in low- and middle-income countries, who need to comparatively assess interventions for the prevention and control of NCDs.The authors emphasize the importance of context in NCD control…
Technology Assessment | Policy/Regulation | Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health Systems | Health/Medicine | Global -
BookPublication 2018Pricing Lives: Guideposts for a Safer Society
This book describes how the government came to adopt the value of a statistical life …
This book describes how the government came to adopt the value of a statistical life (VSL) approach for valuing changes in mortality risks and argues that its more widespread use would create a safer and more equitable society. The author estimates these values based on how much more money workers would demand to take on more hazardous jobs; his current estimate is $10 million. The book addresses numerous topics such as whether older people’s lives…
Benefit-Cost Analysis | Policy/Regulation | Preferences/Values | Climate/Environment | College | Graduate | Critical Thinking/Analysis -
ArticlePublication 2017Estimating the Fitness Cost and Benefit of Cefixime Resistance in Neisseria Gonorrhoeae
Gonorrhoea is one of the most common bacterial sexually transmitted infections in England, and more …
Gonorrhoea is one of the most common bacterial sexually transmitted infections in England, and more than half of annual infections occur in men who have sex with men (MSM). As the bacterium has developed resistance to each first-line antibiotic in turn, an improved understanding is needed of fitness benefits and costs of antibiotic resistance to inform control policy and planning. The authors developed a stochastic compartmental model representing the natural history and transmission of cefixime-sensitive…
Dynamic Transmission | Policy/Regulation | Decision Analysis | Risk Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Health Systems | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | Global -
BookPublication 2017What's In, What's Out: Designing Benefits for Universal Health Coverage
Many low- and middle-income countries now aspire to universal health coverage, where governments ensure that …
Many low- and middle-income countries now aspire to universal health coverage, where governments ensure that all people have access to the quality health services they need without risk of impoverishment. But for universal health coverage to become reality, the health services offered must be consistent with the funds available-and this implies tough everyday choices for policymakers. This publication argues that the creation of an explicit health benefits plan-a defined list of services that are and are…
Technology Assessment | Policy/Regulation | Priority Setting/Ethics | Health Outcomes | Evidence Synthesis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health Systems | Economics/Finance | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | Global -
ArticlePublication 2014Evaluation of FDA Benefit-Cost Analysis of Graphic Warning Labels
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is required to do a regulatory impact analysis assessing …
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is required to do a regulatory impact analysis assessing the costs and benefits of its tobacco products and other regulations. This paper provides a critical review of the approach the FDA used in its proposed and final graphic warning label rule, and includes recommendations on how to improve the analysis in ways that account for the differences between tobacco use and consumption of most consumer products. To date, FDA…
Benefit-Cost Analysis | Policy/Regulation | Costing Methods | Chronic Disease/Risk | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | North America