Many health improving interventions in low-income countries are extremely good value for money. So why has it often proven difficult to obtain political backing for highly cost-effective interventions such as vaccinations, treatments against diarrhoeal disease in children, and preventive...

Medical cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) is perhaps the most widely applied tool to guide policy decisions concerning the use of health care resources. This chapter first reviews the rationale for and common practice of medical cost-effectiveness analysis. It seeks to place CEA within a...

Methodological issues relevant when assessing the efficiency of public units are discusses by Pedraja-Chaparro, Salinas-Jiménez and Smith with reference to non-parametric approaches. First they note that public sector activities usually are aimed at achieving various goals other than...