Complex Problems or Simple Solutions? Enhancing Evidence-based Economics to Reflect Reality

• The production of health, illness and recovery in populations is a complex process that embodies a wide range of influences and interactions between influences • Economic evaluation approaches oversimplify the decision-makers' problem by adopting inappropriate research paradigm that ignores the contexts in which health problems are experienced and health care is delivered • Complexity theory provides a basis for studying problems in their contexts and addressing questions about the circumstances under which interventions work best and what works in specific circumstances • Broad-based economic models already exist with the capacity to incorporate complexity