April Newsletter – International Health Economics Association

Did You Know?

IHEA holds a large number of webinars throughout the year, a majority of which are organized by our Special Interest Groups. Anyone can participate live in these webinars and all webinars are recorded and made available on the IHEA YouTube Channel. You can find details of all IHEA webinars and other events, as well as health economics events offered by other organizations here.

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Arrow Award

The 32^nd Arrow Award for the best paper in health economics is awarded to:

Edward N. Okeke, 2023. When a doctor falls from the sky: The impact of easing doctor supply constraints on mortality. American Economic Review, 113(3), pp.585-627.

Edward Okeke
Pardee RAND Graduate School

The Arrow Award Committee proudly recognizes the author of this innovative paper, which presents findings from a policy experiment conducted in coordination with the Nigerian government. Of 180 primary health service areas, 60 were randomly selected to receive a new doctor. To separate quality effects from the quantity effect of receiving an additional health-care provider, another 60 service areas were randomly selected to receive a midlevel health-care provider with similar qualifications as providers already present in the health center. The remaining 60 service areas did not receive any additional health-care workers and served as a control group. The author shows that adding a doctor led to a marked improvement in health outcomes with seven-day infant mortality, decreasing on average by between seven and eight deaths per thousand. However, adding another health provider with similar qualifications as existing workers had no statistical effect on health outcomes. The magnitude of the effect increased with longer duration of exposure to the intervention. Children with longer than median exposure—based on the number of pregnancy months exposed—experienced a decrease of between thirteen and fifteen deaths per thousand. The author shows that the result of this highly cost-effective intervention is due to higher provider quality. One policy implication of the study is that there is likely to be substantial value in investing in a program that sends doctors to underserved areas.

We congratulate the author on the publication of this important paper.

IHEA would like to thank the members of the Arrow Award Committee:

Chair: Tor Iversen, University of Oslo

Co-Chair: Yuting Zhang, University of Melbourne

Marcella Alsan, Harvard University

Marika Cabral, University of Texas

Luke Connelly, University of Queensland

Bruce Hollingsworth, Lancaster University

Karine Lamiraud, ESSEC

Hsienming Lien, National Chengchi University

Nhung Nghiem, Australian National University

Erin Strumpf, McGill University

Judit Vall Castelló, Universitat de Barcelona

Stephanie von Hinke Kessler Scholder, Bristol University

Marcia Weaver, University of Washington

Calling all health economists working in parts of the world that have not yet hosted an IHEA congress!

Do you work in an institution with a team of health economists who are eager to bring the largest gathering of health economists from around the world to your country? IHEA has released its call for expressions of interest in hosting the 2027 World Congress on Health Economics and is eager to receive proposals from underrepresented regions. We particularly encourage proposals from regions that have not hosted many, or any, IHEA congresses before. You can view past IHEA Congress locations here.

Proposals must be initiated and led by health economists based in universities or other research organizations, who would act as the local organizing committee.

You can find full information on what your proposal should contain here. The deadline for proposals is June 11, 2024.

2025 ASSA Meeting Call for Papers

The International Health Economics Association (IHEA), the American Society of Health Economists (ASHEcon), and the Health Economics Research Organization (HERO) are soliciting papers for presentation at the 2025 Allied Social Science Association (ASSA) annual meeting to be held from January 3–5, 2025 (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) in San Francisco, California. Based upon submitted abstracts, papers will be selected for two IHEA-organized sessions, one ASHEcon-organized session and five HERO-organized sessions.

IHEA seeks abstracts for sessions that will focus primarily on internationally relevant topics in health economics, ASHEcon seeks abstracts on topics related to US-focused health economics topics, and HERO seeks abstracts on all issues of relevance to the health economics field.

Submission Guidelines

Anyone is eligible to submit an abstract. Abstract text must be 500 words or less. Proposals for an organized session can also be submitted. Please note that this is not a guarantee that all papers in a set would necessarily be on the program. IHEA, ASHEcon, and HERO,are independent organizations each with affiliate status in the ASSA.

Note: as a condition of submission, if your paper gets into multiple ASSA/AEA areas, the submitter will withdraw from the others and prioritize these health economics sessions.

Please submit abstracts here by May 15, 2024

SIG Updates

Health Workforce SIG

The Health Workforce Special Interest Group is looking for Coordinators for the next two years! Please email Joanne Spetz at joanne.spetz@ucsf.edu if you’d like to co-lead this group through the 2025 Congress.

Digital Health Technology SIG

Join us!

Interested in digital health? We welcome anyone interested in this rapidly evolving research area. Specifically, we encourage individuals who are:

Currently working on projects related to this field
Have expertise in economics applied to digital health

Please register on the SIG webpage here!

News from University Members

Health Policy Seminar

The REAL Demand and Supply Units, HERC, and CHE, will be hosting, former New Zealand Prime Minister, Sir Bill English to present From data streams to public policy dreams: Sir Bill English on the benefits of greater data integration and linkage in New Zealand

Date: Wednesday 8 May 2024

Location: Online via Zoom/Microsoft Teams

To Join: This is a free event, which will be taking place online via Zoom/Microsoft Teams. To register your interest in attending this talk please click HERE.

Sir Bill English will present on his experience of improving data linkage and integration to better inform public policy decisions.

Bio: Sir Bill English was the 39th Prime Minister of New Zealand from 2016 to 2017 and the leader of the National Party prior to standing down from politics in March 2018. He previously held a range of Ministerial portfolios, including Finance, Health and had roles in education, housing and revenue. He was responsible for sponsoring the development of the integrated data system (IDI) in New Zealand, which agencies and researchers now use to expand the evidence base for public policy decisions. He has a long-term interest in customer focussed innovation in social and health services. Since leaving office, he has been involved in a range of businesses and charities in Australia and New Zealand including the founding of ImpactLab, which measures the social return on investment for charities and philanthropy funders.

To view our forthcoming online talks, please visit https://www.herc.ox.ac.uk/upcoming-events/the-health-economic-and-policy-seminar-series

We look forward to your attendance.

Sophie Cole

Research Officer, HERC and REAL Demand Unit

Short-Term Health Economics Courses at the Johns Hopkins Global Health Systems Summer Institute

The Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is hosting a Global Health Systems Summer Institute on May 28 through August 2, 2024. The Institute is a great opportunity for early- to mid-career public health professionals to expand their skill sets and improve job performance. 

Four health economics courses are offered:

Behavioral economics in health decisions, May 28–31 mornings. Taught by Antonio Trujillo
Globalization and health: Framework for analysis, May 28–31 afternoons. Taught by Andres Vecino-Ortiz
Introduction to global health economics, June 4–7. Taught by Andres Vecino-Ortiz
Disease and program costing in global health programs, June 24–28. Taught by Gatien de Broucker and Bryan Patenaude

Other topics include global health technology, primary health care, global health entrepreneurship, health systems strengthening, health systems management, health policy, health financing, health governance, and more. Most courses are offered online. Check out the institute website for information on registration, tuition, scholarships, and full schedule. Contact Melissa Reed at melissar@jhu.edu with any questions.