Human capital is embodied in human beings. It embraces the individual's capacity to perform and enjoy activities that provide money and/or psychic income. Health behaviour affects human capital and is itself affected by the individual's human capital. This volume consists of original theoretical...

Measurements of individual benefits of different health and medical interventions are fundamental for prioritizing among different alternative uses of resources in the healthcare sector. While psychometric measures do not necessarily provide information sufficient for assigning relative values...

Medical technology broadly defined to include all aspects of the process of treating disease (e.g., pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and surgical procedures) is profoundly important for individual health and, consequently, also for general welfare. Advances in medical technology convey the...

The fields of pharmaceutical economics and health economics/policy are reaching a point of convergence. This is due to both the widespread availability of pharmaceutical treatments, accompanied by broader insurance coverage, and the regulation of prescription drugs in both private and government...

Low- and middle-income countries face major challenges to their health systems. These include a high burden of communicable disease and an emerging non-communicable disease burden. Coverage of effective services and interventions is inadequate and often constrained by funding availability. At...

Quantifying national spending on wellness and prevention / George Miller, Charles Roehrig, Paul Hughes-Cromwick, Craig Lake -- Spillover effects of prescription drug withdrawals / John Cawley, John A. Rizzo -- The psychology of nutrition messages / Heather Schofield, Sendhil Mullainathan --...

The purpose of the series Advances in Health Economics and Health Services Research is to consider all topics in health economics and the related field of health services research. Each volume is devoted to a specific topic. Most volumes consist of between ten and twelve papers, but a few may...

The impact of ownership on the cost-efficiency of U.S. hospitals / Ryan L. Mutter, Michael D. Rosko -- Measuring and decomposing productivity change : the basics / Bert M. Balk -- Competition and market concentration / Nazmi Sari -- Efficiency and productivity changes in large urban hospitals...

Obesity, which has increased in most developed countries in the past few decades, is the result of genetics, environment, and individual choices. Economics is useful for studying the individual choices that lead to obesity, explanations for the recent rise in obesity, the treatment options for...

The economics of substance use and abuse deals with the consumption of goods that share two properties. First, they are addictive in the sense that an increase in past consumption of the good leads to an increase in current consumption. Second, their consumption harms the consumer and others....