Resources Repository
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ArticlePublication 2007Decision Analysis: A Personal Account of How It Got Started and Evolved
In this chapter, Howard Raiffa discusses the evolution of decision analysis and his personal involvement …
In this chapter, Howard Raiffa discusses the evolution of decision analysis and his personal involvement in its development. He describes the early days of Operations Research (OR) in the late 1940s with its approach to complex, strategic decision making. After reading John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern’s Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (1947) and Abraham Wald’s two books (1947, 1950), he became involved in statistical decision theory. A few years later, after reading Leonard…
Probability/Bayes | Operations Research | Decision Theory | Decision Analysis | Energy/Engineering | Business/Industry | Economics/Finance | Preferences/Values | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2017Reduced Burden of Childhood Diarrheal Diseases through Increased Access to Water and Sanitation in India: Modeling Analysis
This analysis estimates the health and economic benefits of scaling up the coverage of piped …
This analysis estimates the health and economic benefits of scaling up the coverage of piped water and improved sanitation to a near-universal 95% level among Indian households. The authors used an agent-based microsimulation platform, IndiaSim, to model disease progression and individual healthcare-seeking behavior in India, and use ECEA to estimate health and economic outcomes over time. They found that scaling up access to piped water and improved sanitation could avert 43,352 diarrheal episodes and 68…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Microsimulation | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Energy/Engineering | Economics/Finance | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Child/Nutrition | Social Determinants | Environmental Health | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | Asia & Pacific -
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 Theory | Decision Analysis | Business/Industry | Economics/Finance | Preferences/Values | Health/Medicine | Military/Defense | North America -
ReviewPublication 2001Modeling for Health Care and Other Policy Decisions: Uses, Roles and Validity
This is a review article of the role of modeling approaches to guide decision making …
This is a review article of the role of modeling approaches to guide decision making in health care and other domains. The role of models to support recommendations on the cost-effective use of medical technologies and pharmaceuticals is controversial. At the heart of the controversy is the degree to which experimental or other empirical evidence should be required prior to model use. The authors argue that the controversy stems in part from a misconception that…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Technology Assessment | Energy/Engineering | Business/Industry | Economics/Finance | Evidence Synthesis | Mathematical Models | Environmental Health | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Climate/Environment | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | North America -
ReviewPublication 1982Decision Analysis: An Overview
This article, written for the non-decision analyst, describes what decision analysis is, what it can …
This article, written for the non-decision analyst, describes what decision analysis is, what it can and cannot do, why one should care to do this, and how one does it. Keeney describes decision analysis as "a formalization of common sense for decision problems which are too complex for informal use of common sense." He provides a more technical definition also, describing decision analysis as "a philosophy, articulated by a set of logical axioms, and a methodology…
Decision Theory | Decision Analysis | Energy/Engineering | Business/Industry | Economics/Finance | Preferences/Values | Policy/Regulation | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Military/Defense | Science/Technology -
ArticlePublication 2019Cost-Effectiveness of U.S. National SSB Tax with a Multistakeholder Approach: Who Pays and Who Benefits
This analysis estimated the health impact and cost-effectiveness of a national penny-per-ounce sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) …
This analysis estimated the health impact and cost-effectiveness of a national penny-per-ounce sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax, overall and with stratified costs and benefits for nine distinct stakeholder groups. A microsimulation model (CVD PREDICT) was used to estimate cardiovascular disease reductions, quality-adjusted life years gained, and cost-effectiveness for U.S. adults aged 35 to 85 years, evaluating full and partial consumer price pass-through. Results showed that from both a health care and societal perspective, the SSB tax was…
Microsimulation | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Business/Industry | Economics/Finance | Chronic Disease/Risk | Policy/Regulation | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | North America -
ArticlePublication 2018Cost-Effectiveness of Financial Incentives and Disincentives for Improving Food Purchases and Health through SNAP
This analysis estimated the health impact, costs, and cost-effectiveness of food incentives, disincentives, or restrictions …
This analysis estimated the health impact, costs, and cost-effectiveness of food incentives, disincentives, or restrictions in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). A microsimulation model (CVD-PREDICT) was used to compare three policy interventions: (1) a 30% incentive for fruits and vegetables (F&V), (2) a 30% F&V incentive with a restriction of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), and (3) a broader incentive/disincentive program for multiple foods that also preserves choice (SNAP-plus). From a societal perspective, all three scenarios…
Microsimulation | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Business/Industry | Economics/Finance | Chronic Disease/Risk | Policy/Regulation | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | North America -
ArticlePublication 2017Household Energy Interventions in Haryana, India: An Extended CEA
In this paper, the authors examine the use of solid fuels as a primary energy …
In this paper, the authors examine the use of solid fuels as a primary energy source for cooking in India, which contributes to high rates of infant and child mortality as well as other diseases caused by household air pollution (HAP). To achieve the widespread adoption of one of three interventions – a mud chimney stove, a blower stove, and LPG use—the government needs to offer subsidies to households using solid fuels. While the reduction…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Energy/Engineering | Economics/Finance | Chronic Disease/Risk | Social Determinants | Environmental Health | Policy/Regulation | Climate/Environment | Science/Technology | Asia & Pacific -
ReviewPublication 2016Using Economic Evidence to Set Healthcare Priorities in LMIC
Policy makers in low-income and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) are increasingly looking to develop ‘evidence-based’ frameworks …
Policy makers in low-income and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) are increasingly looking to develop ‘evidence-based’ frameworks for identifying priority health interventions. This paper synthesizes and appraises the literature on methodological frameworks – which incorporate economic evaluation evidence – for the purpose of setting healthcare priorities in LMICs. A systematic search of Embase, MEDLINE, Econlit and PubMed identified 3968 articles with a further 21 articles identified through manual searching. A total of 36 papers were eligible for inclusion.…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Technology Assessment | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Economics/Finance | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Sub-Saharan Africa | Middle East & North Africa | Latin America & Caribbean | Asia & Pacific