In health economics, cost-effectiveness is defined as maximized health benefits for a given health budget. When there is a private alternative to public treatments, care must be taken when using costeffectiveness analysis to decide what types of treatments should be included in the public...

A central theme in the international debate on genetic testing concerns the extent to which insurance companies should be allowed to use genetic information in their design of insurance contracts. This issue is analysed within a model with the following important feature: A person's well-being...

De aller fleste som blir stilt spørsmålet i overskriften ville trolig svare et entydig nei. Unntaket er økonomer. Mange (de fleste?) økonomer vil nok ikke uten videre svare nei, men vil ønske at spørsmålet stilles mer presist før de vil gi et svar. I dette innlegget vil jeg gi et par...

Using a dynamic model of the control of an infectious disease, we derive the conditions under which eradication will be optimal. When eradication is feasible, the optimal program requires either a low vaccination rate or eradication. A high vaccination rate is never optimal. Under special...

Cost effectiveness is a criterion that is often recommended for prioritizing between different types of health care. A modified use of this criterion can be justified as the outcome of a choice that is made “behind a veil of ignorance”. Reduced health will in many cases also gives an income...

Privacy of information is a central concern in the debate about genetic testing. Two types of social inefficiencies may occur when information about prevention and test status is private; genetic testing may not be done when it is socially efficient and genetic testing may be done although it is...

In this article the authors Michael Hoel and Erik Magnus Sæther consider an economy where most of the health care is publicly provided, and where there is waiting time for several types of treatments. Private health care without waiting time is an option for the patients in the public health...

The criterion of cost-effectiveness in health management may be given a welfaretheoretical justification if people are risk neutral with respect to life years. With risk aversion, the optimal allocation of health expenditures change: Compared to the costeffective allocation, more resources...