Health economics is one of the fastest growing sub-disciplines of economics and is probably the one that has most engaged with neighbouring disciplines, such as epidemiology and bio-statistics, to solve some of the more intractable problems confronting healthcare systems around the world. The impact of health economics outside the economics profession has been immense, and it has introduced the common currency of economists (opportunity cost, elasticity, the margin, production functions) into medical parlance. However, the very size of the literature spawned by health economists poses a challenge to both students and to those seeking to know more about what economists have had to say on key issues. These volumes are designed to help readers to overcome these difficulties. Presenting a comprehensive ‘library’ of the most important contributions made by health economists, each of the four volumes covers two significant areas of health economics, with each of these eight areas then including an introduction and an article-by-article commentary by the editor. There is also a general introduction, which outlines the scope and content of health economics, to help orientate the reader.
The selection of articles made by Culyer has been based on a survey of the principal teachers of health economics in universities in North America, Europe and elsewhere. Each chosen item is of current relevance and collectively the articles provide a comprehensive review of the most important contributions made by health economists over the past thirty years or so.