This dissertation is a collection of four essays dealing with topics of the production of health and health care finance. In almost all industrialized countries public health care expenditure continues to increase at a faster pace than GDP. Thus, debate on health policy often focuses on limiting...

"Rates of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in low- and middle-income countries are increasing faster, in younger people, and with worse outcomes than in wealthier countries. In 2013 alone, NCDs killed eight million people before their sixtieth birthdays...