Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the UK Health Economists' Study Group, June 1997. Where Are We Now in British Health Economics?

Health economics took off in 1970 or thereabouts, just after the take-off date for the economics of education. Although early health economics made use of human capital theory as did the economics of education, it soon took a different route inspired by Arrow's work on medical insurance. The economics of education failed to live up to its promising start in the 1960s and gradually ran out of steam. The economics of health, however, has made steady theoretical and empirical progress since 1970, principally in coming to grips with the implications of supplier-induced demand and the difficulties of evaluating health care outcomes.