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Is more health always better?

Inaugural lecture 13 June 2012. Is more health always better?. Aki Tsuchiya Dept of Economics and School of Health and Related Research. outline. Microeconomics for non-economists Application to health How I got here. PART ONE. Microeconomics

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Is more health always better?

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  1. Inaugural lecture 13 June 2012 Is more health always better? Aki Tsuchiya Dept of Economics and School of Health and Related Research

  2. outline • Microeconomics for non-economists • Application to health • How I got here

  3. PART ONE Microeconomics • The relationship between consumption goods and their effects on welfare • Individual utility • Social welfare

  4. Abstraction • Quantification.

  5. More food and more water is better than less food and less water • Everything else is fixed.

  6. Collection of points that are equally good A “contour” of utility or welfare • Suppose there is less food How much water would you need to make up for it?.

  7. The gradient of the contour along it • “Substitutes”?.

  8. The contour is curved towards the origin • The more of one good you already have, the less valuable is the next unit, relative to the other good.

  9. “Pareto improvement” If there is more of one good and everything else is unchanged then overall that is an improvement The contour cannot be upward sloping.

  10. Too much of a “good” can be bad for you • But rational individuals would not choose such a point So the contour will not be upward sloping.

  11. The same analytical tool can be used for • individual utility or social welfare, • based on goods or services.

  12. or, social welfare, based on wellbeing of different people.

  13. PART TWO Health economics • Application of microeconomics to health.

  14. Abstraction • Quantification • The grouping of people..

  15. Substitutes • Suppose 1’s health declines the same improvement in 2’s health would make up for it …?

  16. More health is good • Equality in health is also good • Why?.

  17. The relationship between efficiency and equality “Inequality averse contour”.

  18. Equality is important • Willingness to forego overall good • Quantification of the importance of equality.

  19. Pareto improvement If there is more of one good and everything else is unchanged, then overall that is an improvement The contour cannot be upward sloping.

  20. Pareto improvement If the already healthy get even more healthy and everything else is unchanged, then overall that is an improvement The contour cannot be upward sloping ….?.

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