Resources Repository
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ArticlePublication 2022Priority Setting in Early Childhood Development: An Analytical Framework
Early childhood development (ECD) sets the foundation for healthy and successful lives with important consequences …
Early childhood development (ECD) sets the foundation for healthy and successful lives with important consequences for education, labor market outcomes, and other domains of well-being. Even though many ECD interventions are implemented and evaluated globally, there is currently no standardized framework for comparing these interventions’ relative cost-effectiveness. The investigators developed an economic evaluation framework that focuses on the immediate impact of ECD interventions targeting motor, cognitive, language, and socioemotional skills. They applied the framework to compute…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Decision Analysis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Child/Nutrition | Global -
Resource PackPublication, Teaching Resource 2019Resource Pack: BCA in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
This resource pack, curated by the Center for Health Decision Science, includes methods papers, case …
This resource pack, curated by the Center for Health Decision Science, includes methods papers, case studies, and reference case guidance for conducting benefit-cost analyses in low- and middle-income countries. These resources will aid advanced students and experienced practitioners in preparing these analyses. Investing in global health and development requires making difficult choices about what initiatives to fund and what level of resources to devote to each initiative. Although benefit-cost analysis is a well-established and widely-used…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Decision Analysis | Preferences/Values | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Social Determinants | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Global | Graduate | Doctoral | Professional | Critical Thinking/Analysis -
Resource PackPublication, Teaching Resource 2024Resource Pack: Introduction to Benefit-Cost Analysis
This resource pack, curated by the Center for Health Decision Science, introduces the theory and …
This resource pack, curated by the Center for Health Decision Science, introduces the theory and practice of benefit-cost analysis. It is targeted towards advanced students as well as practitioners and those interested in teaching benefit-cost analysis. Benefit-cost analysis (also referred to as cost-benefit analysis) is a well-established and widely-used form of economic evaluation. It is designed to inform policy and other decisions by providing evidence on the consequences of alternative interventions. In benefit-cost analysis, all…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Decision Analysis | Preferences/Values | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Social Determinants | Policy/Regulation | Climate/Environment | Economics/Finance | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Global | College | Graduate | Doctoral | Professional | Critical Thinking/Analysis -
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 | Decision Analysis | Preferences/Values | Health Outcomes | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Social Determinants | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Global | Critical Thinking/Analysis -
ArticlePublication 2017Designing an Optimal HIV Programme for South Africa
This 2017 study compares the traditional and a novel method of comparing cost-effectiveness interventions in …
This 2017 study compares the traditional and a novel method of comparing cost-effectiveness interventions in the context of HIV in South Africa, using a modeling approach. The authors argue that the assumptions of a) independence of interventions, and b) linear scale-up effects do not hold because South Africa has a large domestically funded HIV program with highly saturated coverage levels. The authors therefore aim to better allocate resources for HIV interventions in South Africa when…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Operations Research | Mathematical Models | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Health Systems | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Sub-Saharan Africa -
ReviewPublication 2016Remembering Howard Raiffa
Howard Raiffa (1924-2016) had a profound influence on all aspects of the decision sciences and on …
Howard Raiffa (1924-2016) had a profound influence on all aspects of the decision sciences and on the fields of systems analysis and operations research. He guided the introduction of the decision sciences into numerous fields such as business, medicine, public health, the environmental sciences, and law, and was instrumental in building world-recognized institutions such as the Kennedy School at Harvard and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis near Vienna, Austria. This article is a thoughtful tribute by…
Operations Research | Decision Analysis | Decision Theory | Preferences/Values | Business/Industry | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Military/Defense | North America -
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 | Decision Analysis | Preferences/Values | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Social Determinants | Environmental Health | Policy/Regulation | Climate/Environment | Culture/Society | Economics/Finance | Government/Law | North America | Critical Thinking/Analysis -
BookPublication 2016Foundations of Decision Analysis
This book is described by the authors as emerging from what they have learned by …
This book is described by the authors as emerging from what they have learned by "teaching decision analysis to thousands of people in the United States and around the world in university classes and special professional educational programs". The early chapters and certain later chapters are written to be accessible to a general audience. Chapters 1 through 17 introduce the foundations of decision analysis without requiring significant mathematical sophistication. Chapter 26 discusses multi-attribute decision problems…
Operations Research | Decision Analysis | Decision Theory | Decision Psychology | Probability/Bayes | Business/Industry | Economics/Finance | Energy/Engineering | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Military/Defense | Global -
ReportPublication 2015Modeling to Improve Policy Decisions in the Americas: Noncommunicable Diseases
In the Region of the Americas, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are a clear threat not only …
In the Region of the Americas, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are a clear threat not only to human health, but also to a country’s economic development and growth. The evidence on both of these counts is compelling. In 2012, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancers, chronic respiratory conditions including asthma, and other NCDs were the cause of 4.5 million deaths in the Americas. Of that total number, 1.5 million of them were premature, occurring among people aged 30-69…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Decision Analysis | Costing Methods | Mathematical Models | State-Transition | Microsimulation | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Chronic Disease/Risk | Mental Health | Health/Medicine | Latin America & Caribbean