This popular textbook provides a comprehensive but accessible coverage of health economic principles and applications. It provides an introduction for those with no previous knowledge of economics, but also more advanced material suitable for those with a background in economics. Now into its second edition, Barbara McPake and Charles Normand have incorporated developments in economic evaluation and economics of health systems from recent research and experience while retaining an accessible approach and style.

The book starts with a section on basic economic principles as applied to health and health care, and goes on to discuss economic evaluation in health care, the economics of health systems and health care finance. Examples and illustrations are taken from a wide range of settings and world regions, reflecting the authors’ belief that the same principles apply, and that it is useful to have some understanding of how different countries organise the health system. It provides an understanding of the performance of different health systems from the insurance based approaches in the United States to government funding that is common in Canada and most countries in Europe, and the mixed systems that operate in most low-income countries.

This book is ideal for students in public health and related courses, for health care professionals and those studying health economics at a more advanced level.

Part 1 Introductory Health Economics, Chapter 1 Introduction: Health economics in international perspective, Chapter 2 The demand for health and health services, Chapter 3 Demand, elasticity and health, Chapter 4 Production, health and health care: efficient use of inputs, Chapter 5 Cost of delivering health services, Chapter 6 Basic market models, Chapter 7 Supplier-induced demand and agency. Chapter 8 Market failure and government, Part 2 Economic Evaluation, Chapter 9 The theoretical bases of economic evaluation, Chapter 10 Issues in the Measurement of Costs, Chapter 11 Measuring Benefits in Economic Evaluation, Chapter 12 Practical Steps in Economic Evaluation, Chapter 13 Economic Evaluation as a Framework for Choice, Part 3 Further economics of Markets and Market Intervention, Chapter 14 Contracting, Chapter 15 Market Structures, Chapter 16 Hospital and health provider behaviour and motivation, Chapter 17 The Economics of Regulation, Chapter 18 Incentives and Agency, Part 4: The Economics of Health Systems, Chapter 19 Health systems: a framework for analysis, Chapter 20 Health systems around the world: An introduction to variation and performance, Chapter 21 Public Health Service Systems, Chapter 22 Voluntary insurance based systems, Chapter 23 Social Insurance Systems, Chapter 24 Parallel systems, Chapter 25 Economics of Health Sector