In this paper, I examine the contribution that economics can make to our understanding of key issues in health and health care. In the first part of the paper, I argue that economics can bring valuable insights into the world of over-eating and present recent economic theories that argue that...

Payer-driven competition has been widely advocated as a means of increasing efficiency in health care markets. The 1990s reforms to the UK health service followed this path. We examine whether competition led to better outcomes for patients, as measured by death rates after treatment following...