Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name:  Jens Leth Hougaard
Author-Name-First: Jens Leth
Author-Name-Last: Hougaard
Author-Email: jlh@foi.ku.dk
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen
Author-Name:  Juan D. Moreno-Ternero
Author-Name-First: Juan D.
Author-Name-Last: Moreno-Ternero
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, Universidad Pablo de Olavide
Author-Name:  Lars Peter Østerdal
Author-Name-First:  Lars Peter 
Author-Name-Last: Østerdal
Author-Email: lpro@sam.sdu.dk
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Business and Economics, University of Southern Denmark
Title:  A New Axiomatic Approach to the Evaluation of Population Health
Abstract: In this paper we explore the implications of ethical and operational principles for the evaluation of population health. We formalize those principles as axioms for social preferences over distributions of health for a given population. We single out several focal population health evaluation functions, which represent social preferences, as a result of combinations of those axioms. Our results provide rationale for popular theories in health economics (such as the unweighted aggregation of QALYs or HYEs, and generalizations of the two, aimed to capture concerns for distributive justice) without resorting to controversial assumptions over individual preferences.
Length: 24 pages
Creation-Date:  2012-03
File-URL: http://okonomi.foi.dk/workingpapers/MSAPpdf/MSAP2012/MSAP_WP07_2012.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
Number: 07_2012
Classification-JEL: D63, I10
Keywords: population health, QALYs, HYEs, axioms
Handle: RePEc:foi:msapwp:07_2012