HP421      Half Unit
Economic Analysis for Health Policy in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

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The aim of the course is to provide students with some key analytical methods and concepts used by economists to study health care policies in low- and middle-income countries. The course takes a micro-economic perspective, in that it will study how individuals involved in health care systems (patients, providers, insurers) make decisions which affect the utilisation and delivery of health care services.

The course will present key theoretical concepts and use empirical evidence particularly relevant for policy questions in low- and middle-income settings. The course will be applied in nature, as students will learn through case studies which will expose to different types of data and evidence to analyse decisions made by individuals and then articulate recommendations for health policy.

By the end of this course, students will be able to:
• define fundamental principles and concepts of health economics relevant to health policy challenges in low- and middle-income countries
• understand the economic models of decisions made by individuals on the demand- and supply-side of health care markets in low and middle-income countries;
• apply economic reasoning and models to identify problems and to recommend relevant health care policies;
• refer to seminal literature and evidence in the health economics and health policy fields in low- and middle-income countries;
• be able to interpret simple results from empirical economic studies, and formulate policy recommendations.

1.5 hours of lectures in the Spring Term.
15 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

Coursework assessed throughout the WT

The course draws from a variety of textbooks and articles, providing essential references to understand the theoretical concepts and read key empirical studies. A complete reading list is provided at the start of the term.

The following papers are a selection of readings used in the course:

• Dupas P (2011) “Health Behavior in Developing Countries” Annual Review of Economics, Vol. 3
• Lepine, A., M. Lagarde and A. Le Nestour (2018). "How effective and fair is user fee removal? Evidence from Zambia using a pooled synthetic control." Health Economics 27(3): 493-508.
• Dupas, P., V. Hoffmann, M. Kremer and A. P. Zwane (2016). "Targeting health subsidies through a nonprice mechanism: A randomized controlled trial in Kenya." Science 353(6302): 889-895.
• Capuno, J. J., A. D. Kraft, S. Quimbo, C. R. Tan and A. Wagstaff (2016). "Effects of Price, Information, and Transactions Cost Interventions to Raise Voluntary Enrollment in a Social Health Insurance”, Health Economics 25(6) p650-662
• Baicker, K., W. J. Congdon and S. Mullainathan (2012). "Health Insurance Coverage and Take-Up: Lessons from Behavioral Economics." Milbank Quarterly 90(1): 107-134.
• R. M. Scheffler, C. H. Herbst, C. Lemiere and J. Campbell. (2016). Health Labor Market Analyses in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: An Evidence-Based Approach. 
• McPake, B, A Scott, and I Edoka. (2014). Analyzing Markets for Health Workers: Insights from Labor and Health Economics. Directions in Development. Washington, DC: World Bank.
• Lagarde, M. and D. Blaauw (2014). "Pro-social preferences and self-selection into jobs: Evidence from South African nurses." Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 107, Part A: 136-152.
• Banerjee, A. V., E. Duflo and R. Glennerster (2008). "Putting a Band-Aid on a Corpse: Incentives for Nurses in the Indian Public Health Care System." Journal of the European Economic Association 6(2-3): 487-500.
• Björkman, M. and J. Svensson (2009). "Power to the People: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment on Community-Based Monitoring in Uganda." The Quarterly Journal of Economics 124(2): 735-769.
• Currie, J., W. Lin and W. Zhang (2011). "Patient knowledge and antibiotic abuse: Evidence from an audit study in China." J Health Econ 30(5): 933-949.
• Björkman Nyqvist, M. and S. Jayachandran (2017). "Mothers Care More, but Fathers Decide: Educating Parents about Child Health in Uganda." American Economic Review 107(5): 496-500.

Exam (100%), duration: 120 Minutes in the Spring exam period