Course

Health Economics

Teacher(s)

Maarten Lindeboom, Owen O'Donnell
Research field

Empirical Microeconomics
Dates

Period 3 - Jan 08, 2024 to Mar 01, 2024

Course type

Field
Program year

Second
Credits

3

Course description

This course examines how economics can be used to explain health behaviour, identify economic consequences of ill-health, and design health policy. It starts by evaluating the success of economic theory and empirical methods in explaining differences in health by education, wealth and income. It then considers effects of health on economic behaviour and outcomes. While the health economics research covered in the first two topics seeks to explain phenomena, the third and fourth topics turn to research with a prescriptive purpose: the design of policies to control communicable diseases and prevent non-communicable ones.

The fifth topic examines empirical strategies to identify causal effects of adverse circumstances early in life on human capital, labour market, and health outcomes in later life. Two conceptual frameworks are used to interpret the long shadow of early life conditions: the biological programming hypothesis and the pathways framework. Subsequently, a framework for parental investment in the cognitive and non-cognitive skills of children is considered. The final topic deals with the health effects of work in the later stages of working life and the measurement of health in social surveys.

Prerequisites

You should have completed a course in Advanced Microeconomics.

Course literature

Videos and slides posted on Canvas, plus reading (see syllabus posted on Canvas).