Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Advances in Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Health Interventions

Contents:

Author Info

  • Alan M. Garber
Registered author(s):

    Abstract

    The growing application of cost-effectiveness (CE) analysis and controversies about its methods has led to a need to explore its welfare economic foundations. Examination of its welfare theoretic foundations can provide a rationale for selecting specific standards for the application of CE analysis while deepening our understanding of the implications of alternative methodological approaches. In this paper, I explore conditions under which decision making based on CE analysis, carried out a specific way, leads to a distribution of resources that has desirable social welfare properties. The first section describes the basics of CE analysis and how it can be applied to aid decisions about the allocation of health resources. The paper then turns to the potential welfare economic foundations of CE analysis, and addresses specific issues in carrying out CE analysis, such as which costs to include, whose perspective matters in the analysis, and how health outcomes are measured. It demonstrates how a welfare economic foundation can help resolve ambiguities and uncertainties about the application of CE analysis. The paper also discusses the limitations of such an approach, which indeed reflect limitations of CE analysis as an analytic framework. Finally, it addresses unresolved issues such as the difficulties in using the results of CE analysis to make health policy at the societal or group level.

    Download Info

    If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w7198.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    Bibliographic Info

    Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 7198.

    as in new window
    Length:
    Date of creation: Jun 1999
    Date of revision:
    Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:7198

    Note: HC
    Contact details of provider:
    Postal: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
    Phone: 617-868-3900
    Email:
    Web page: http://www.nber.org
    More information through EDIRC

    Related research

    Keywords:

    Find related papers by JEL classification:

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    References

    References listed on IDEAS
    Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
    as in new window
    1. Meltzer, David, 1997. "Accounting for future costs in medical cost-effectiveness analysis," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 33-64, February.
    2. Kenkel, Don, 1997. "On valuing morbidity, cost-effectiveness analysis, and being rude," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(6), pages 749-757, December.
    3. Johannesson, Magnus & Weinstein, Milton C., 1993. "On the decision rules of cost-effectiveness analysis," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 459-467, December.
    4. David Meltzer, 1997. "Accounting for Future Costs in Medical Cost-Effectiveness Analysis," NBER Working Papers 5946, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Garber, Alan M. & Phelps, Charles E., 1997. "Economic foundations of cost-effectiveness analysis," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 1-31, February.
    6. Birch, Stephen & Gafni, Amiram, 1994. "Cost-effectiveness ratios: in a league of their own," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 133-141, May.
    7. Weinstein, Milton C. & Manning, Willard Jr., 1997. "Theoretical issues in cost-effectiveness analysis," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 121-128, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as in new window

    Cited by:
    1. Tomas J. Philipson & Anupam B. Jena, 2005. "Who Benefits from New Medical Technologies? Estimates of Consumer and Producer Surpluses for HIV/AIDS Drugs," NBER Working Papers 11810, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Christopher J.L. Murray & David B. Evans & Arnab Acharya & Rob M.P.M. Baltussen, 2000. "Development of WHO guidelines on generalized cost-effectiveness analysis," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 9(3), pages 235-251.
    3. Jena, Anupam B. & Philipson, Tomas J., 2008. "Cost-effectiveness analysis and innovation," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 1224-1236, September.
    4. Tomas J. Philipson & Anupam B. Jena, 2006. "Surplus Appropriation from R&D and Health Care Technology Assessment Procedures," NBER Working Papers 12016, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Tomas J. Philipson & Gary Becker & Dana Goldman & Kevin M. Murphy, 2010. "Terminal Care and The Value of Life Near Its End," NBER Working Papers 15649, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Gary Becker & Kevin Murphy & Tomas Philipson, 2007. "The Value of Life Near its End and Terminal Care," NBER Working Papers 13333, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    Lists

    This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:7198

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ().

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

    If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.