LECTURE NOTES
For All Health Science Students
Introduction to Health
Economics
Gashaw Andargie
University of Gondar
In collaboration with the Ethiopia Public Health Training Initiative, The Carter Center,
the
, Ethiopia Ministry of Health, and the Ethiopia Ministry of Education
September 2008
Funded under USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 663-A-00-00-0358-00.
Produced in collaboration with the Ethiopia Public Health Training Initiative, The Carter
Center, the Ethiopia Ministry of Health, and the Ethiopia Ministry of Education.
Important Guidelines for Printing and Photocopying
Limited permission is granted free of charge to print or photocopy all pages of this
publication for educational, not-for-profit use by health care workers, students or
faculty. All copies must retain all author credits and copyright notices included in the
original document. Under no circumstances is it permissible to sell or distribute on a
commercial basis, or to claim authorship of, copies of material reproduced from this
publication.
©2008 by Gashaw Andargie
All rights reserved. Except as expressly provided above, no part of this publication may
be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without written permission of the author or authors.
This material is intended for educational use only by practicing health care workers or
students and faculty in a health care field.
, PREFACE
Health economics is concerned with the alternative uses of
resources in the health services sector and with the efficient
utilization of economic resources such as Human resource,
material and financial resources. Every health worker needs to
acquaint him/ her self with the basic concepts of economics and
its application to the health sector in order to manage health
institutions and health delivery system efficiently.
“Health economics” as a course is meant to give medical, health
officer and other paramedical students basic principles
regarding economics and its application to the health sector.
Therefore, this material should be regarded as an introduction
to health economics rather than to economics.
The lecture note on “Health Economics” is prepared in line with
the set curriculum, which is currently in use in health
professionals training institutes.
i
, The materials in this lecture note are complied from different
books that are published by different authors and also from
internet.
Most books in the field emphasize only on some detailed and
specific aspects of health economics. The objective of updating
this lecture note is, therefore, to improve the basic concepts of
economics and their application to the health sector and not to
exhaustively present all that is important about the subject
matter of health economics. Thus, the need for supplementary
reference books could be of paramount importance.
Concepts and the analyses presented in this document will help
to serve as working material so that students and others could
understand and apply basic ideas of economics to the health
sector.
The compiling of this material was made possible through the
teaching and learning process of the course “Health
Economics’ at the University of Gondar. Updating of the
document should be understood as a process of making
amendments of lecture materials. I do not claim that the
material is an original work, hence due gratitude is extended to
the previous authors of those lecture notes and books that
served as sources for this instruction material.
ii
For All Health Science Students
Introduction to Health
Economics
Gashaw Andargie
University of Gondar
In collaboration with the Ethiopia Public Health Training Initiative, The Carter Center,
the
, Ethiopia Ministry of Health, and the Ethiopia Ministry of Education
September 2008
Funded under USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 663-A-00-00-0358-00.
Produced in collaboration with the Ethiopia Public Health Training Initiative, The Carter
Center, the Ethiopia Ministry of Health, and the Ethiopia Ministry of Education.
Important Guidelines for Printing and Photocopying
Limited permission is granted free of charge to print or photocopy all pages of this
publication for educational, not-for-profit use by health care workers, students or
faculty. All copies must retain all author credits and copyright notices included in the
original document. Under no circumstances is it permissible to sell or distribute on a
commercial basis, or to claim authorship of, copies of material reproduced from this
publication.
©2008 by Gashaw Andargie
All rights reserved. Except as expressly provided above, no part of this publication may
be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without written permission of the author or authors.
This material is intended for educational use only by practicing health care workers or
students and faculty in a health care field.
, PREFACE
Health economics is concerned with the alternative uses of
resources in the health services sector and with the efficient
utilization of economic resources such as Human resource,
material and financial resources. Every health worker needs to
acquaint him/ her self with the basic concepts of economics and
its application to the health sector in order to manage health
institutions and health delivery system efficiently.
“Health economics” as a course is meant to give medical, health
officer and other paramedical students basic principles
regarding economics and its application to the health sector.
Therefore, this material should be regarded as an introduction
to health economics rather than to economics.
The lecture note on “Health Economics” is prepared in line with
the set curriculum, which is currently in use in health
professionals training institutes.
i
, The materials in this lecture note are complied from different
books that are published by different authors and also from
internet.
Most books in the field emphasize only on some detailed and
specific aspects of health economics. The objective of updating
this lecture note is, therefore, to improve the basic concepts of
economics and their application to the health sector and not to
exhaustively present all that is important about the subject
matter of health economics. Thus, the need for supplementary
reference books could be of paramount importance.
Concepts and the analyses presented in this document will help
to serve as working material so that students and others could
understand and apply basic ideas of economics to the health
sector.
The compiling of this material was made possible through the
teaching and learning process of the course “Health
Economics’ at the University of Gondar. Updating of the
document should be understood as a process of making
amendments of lecture materials. I do not claim that the
material is an original work, hence due gratitude is extended to
the previous authors of those lecture notes and books that
served as sources for this instruction material.
ii
