Where are we now in British health economics?

Résumé 0

"Health economics took off in 1970 or thereabouts, just after the take-off date for the economicsof education. Although early health economics made use of human capital theory as did theeconomics of education, it soon took a different route inspired by Arrow’s work on medicalinsurance. The economics of education failed to live up to its promising start in the 1960s andgradually ran out of steam. The economies of health, however, has made steady theoretical andempirical progress since 1970 principally in coming to grips with the implications of supplierinduced demand and the difficulties of evaluating health care outcomes. Some of the best workon British health economics has been in the area of normative welfare economies, definingmore precisely what is meant by equity in the delivery of health care and measuring the degreeof success in achieving equity. Recent efforts to reform the NHS by the introduction of "quasimarkets" have improved the quality and quantity of health care in Britain. In short, Britishhealth economics has been characterized by the use of Pigovian piecemeal rather than Paretianglobal welfare economics, retaining a distinctive style that sets it apart from American healtheconomies."