Abstract
Having provided an introduction to some basic epidemiological modeling, I next present some basic economic principles that result from these models. Namely, I want to discuss how the economic concepts of positive and negative externalities as well as marginal changes can be used to better understand public health policy. I begin by introducing the economic concept of utility that the reader may have seen in an introductory economics course and the concept of a value function which calculates the utility of an individual being in a particular category or state of interest. I then show how this formulation can be used to state externalities and inform decision making at both an individual and public level.
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Notes
- 1.
The point that disease eradication is unlikely to come about without policy intervention was fist made in Geoffard and Philipson 1997.
Reference
Geoffard P-Y, Philipson T (1997) Disease eradication: public vs. private vaccination. Am Econ Rev 87(1):222–230
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Tassier, T. (2013). Economic Modeling and Epidemiology. In: The Economics of Epidemiology. SpringerBriefs in Public Health. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38120-1_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38120-1_4
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