Health economics focuses on the efficiency (maximizing possible outputs from given inputs) and effectiveness (benefit from treatment or care) of resource allocation in the provisioning of health services infrastructure to meet health needs of individuals and society. Embodied in its domain is health care, which is multi-dimensional in character having such elements as public good with externalities, social merit want, private consumption good, human capital good, altruistic mind-set, etc as its components. Understanding health economics entails viewing it as a dependent variable based on such factors as (i) income (ii) education (iii) changes in the age structure (iv) improvement in medical technology (v) degree of illness of a patient and (vi) availability as well as accessibility of health care institutions etc. In such a framework, demand for or quantity of health care depends on the quality of medical care. Greater the quality of care, greater is the willingness to pay for the services received. The aforesaid discussion sets the tone of the present volume wherein different facets of health economics as well as its implications in different countries are delved upon through a bi-sectional approach. While the first section details the domain and scope of health economics apart from prescribing policies to ward off the lacunae, the other section portrays the economic impact as a result of differential health status in different parts of the globe.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Asis Kumar Pain
Asis Kumar Pain holds M.Phil and PhD degrees in Economics from The University of Burdwan, West Bengal. He is currently working as Consulting Editor at Icfai Business School Research Centre, Kolkata. Prior to joining Icfai, he worked on various transport related projects at the Centre for Transport Studies, Jadavpur University. He regularly contributes research papers to various refereed journals. Some of them include Indian Journal of Transport Management (Central Institute of Road Transport), Nagarlok (Indian Institute of Public Administration) and Icfai Journal of Management Research. His research area of interest is travel demand estimation using hierarchical modelling techniques.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Somnath Hazra
Somnath Hazra holds an MA degree in Economics from Rabindra Bharati University, West Bengal. Prior to joining Icfai, he worked on various projects related to Environmental Economics sponsored by University Grants Commission, West Bengal Pollution Control Board etc. He also had the experience of delivering Post Graduate lectures on Rural Economics (Rural Environmental Economics) under special lecture scheme of Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, apart from serving as External Examiner of Environmental Economics in MA (Environmental Studies) Course. He also worked as an Associate Consultant of a vital developmental project of the Government of West Bengal. Besides regularly contributing to research papers in various refereed journals and edited volumes, he regularly presents research papers in various National and International Conferences. His research areas of interest are environmental economics, health economics and development economics.
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