This book provides an engaging, comprehensive review of health economics, with a focus on policy implications in the developed and developing world. Authoritative, but non-technical, it stresses the wide reach of the discipline - across nations, health systems, and areas within health and medical care.

1. Introduction ; 2. Health Systems in Industrialized Countries ; 3. Health Systems in Low- and Middle-Income Countries ; 4. The Political Economy of Health Care ; 5. The Promise of Health: Evidence of the Impact of Health on Income and Well-Being ; 6. Health Production ; 7. Socioeconomic Status and Health: Dimensions and Mechanisms ; 8. Determinants of Health in Childhood ; 9. Economics of Infectious Diseases ; 10. Economics of Health Behaviours and Addictions: Contemporary Issues and Policy Implications ; 11. Economic and Mental Health: An International Perspective ; 12. Public Sector Health Care Financing ; 13. Voluntary Private Health Insurance ; 14. Health Care Cost Growth ; 15. User Charges ; 16. Insurance and the Demand for Medical Care ; 17. Guaranteed Access to Affordable Coverage in Individual Health Insurance Markets ; 18. Managed Care ; 19. Hospitals: Teaming Up ; 20. Primary Care ; 21. The Global Health Workforce ; 22. The Economics of the Biopharmaceutical Industry ; 23. Disease Prevention, Health Care and Economics ; 24. Long-Term Care ; 25. Physician Agency and Payment for Primary Medical Care ; 26. Provider Payment and Incentives ; 27. Non-Price Rationing and Waiting Times ; 28. Increasing Competition between Providers in Health Care Markets: The Economic Evidence ; 29. Measuring Organizational Performance ; 30. Health System Productivity ; 31. The Methods of Cost-Effectiveness Analysis to Inform Decisions about the Use of Health Care Interventions and Programmes ; 32. Analysing Uncertainty in Cost-effectiveness for Decision Making ; 33. Health Utility Measurement ; 34. Concepts of Equity and Fairness in Health and Health Care ; 35. Measuring Inequality and Inequity in Health and Health Care ; 36. Intergenerational Aspects of Health Care ; 37. Econometric Evaluation of Health Policies ; 38. Health Economics and Policy: The Challenges of Proselytising

`Comprehensively covers the multiple aspects of health and medical care . . . this important handbook is a must read for the expanding masters in global health programmes.' Devi Sridhar, The Lancet `This is a first-rate handbook - comprehensive and balanced - it is an excellent introduction to multiple aspects of health and medical care.' Victor R. Fuchs, Henry J. Kaiser Jr. Professor Emeritus, Stanford University (Departments of Economics and Health Research and Policy) `A comprehensive guide to the ever-growing field of health economics: indispensable, not only for the academic researcher but also for the policy-maker.' Julian Le Grand, Richard Titmuss Professor of Social Policy, London School of Economics `A "must have" for anyone who cares about this subject. The authors cross the full spectrum in terms of specialties, geography, and political orientation.' Gail Wilensky, Senior Fellow, Project HOPE

Comprehensive survey of topics with abundant cross-references, illuminating the breadth of the field and the connections within it Authoritative, yet non-technical, it provides a full array of topics for health economics specialists while remaining accessible to non-specialists and those from other fields Includes developed and developing country perspectives that illustrate the application of health economics thinking across a broad range of institutional contexts Highlights the direct impact of health economics reasoning on policy and practice

Sherry Glied is Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, where, she was department chair from 2002-2009 and has been on faculty since 1989. She served as the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from July 2010 through August 2012. In 1992-1993, she was a senior economist for health care and labor market policy on the President's Council of Economic Advisers under Presidents Bush and Clinton, and participated in the Clinton Health Care Task Force. She has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and to the Board of Academy Health and has been a member of the Congressional Budget Office's Panel of Health Advisers. Peter C. Smith is Professor of Health Policy and co-director of the Centre for Health Policy at Imperial College London. He is a mathematics graduate from the University of Oxford, and started his academic career in the public health department at the University of Cambridge. In recent years his main research has been in the economics of health, and he was formerly Director of the Centre for Health Economics at the University of York. He has acted in numerous governmental advisory capacities, and advised many overseas governments and international agencies, including the World Health Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the European Commission, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Comprehensive survey of topics with abundant cross-references, illuminating the breadth of the field and the connections within it Authoritative, yet non-technical, it provides a full array of topics for health economics specialists while remaining accessible to non-specialists and those from other fields Includes developed and developing country perspectives that illustrate the application of health economics thinking across a broad range of institutional contexts Highlights the direct impact of health economics reasoning on policy and practice