A Contextualist Approach to Health Economics

John Davis and Robert McMaster
Additional contact information
Robert McMaster: University of Glasgow

No 2021-06, Working Papers and Research from Marquette University, Center for Global and Economic Studies and Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper departs from the standard abstract economics approach to health economics to develop a specifically contextualist approach to the subject emphasizing social and historical circumstances affecting health provision. Following Polanyi, it sees the economy as socially embedded and economic relationships as social relationships. The paper critically examines Grossman’s natural science utility maximization explanation of people’s demand for health and health care, and advances an alternative social science account using a two-way analysis between micro level social relationships and the macro level organization of health in society. Three significant trends affecting the future of health systems are discussed. The paper closes with comments on the influence of psychology in the form of behavioral economics on the future development of a contextualist approach to health economics.

Keywords: contextualism; Polanyi; social embeddedness; Grossman; health systems; behavioral economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A12 A13 I12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cwa, nep-hme, nep-pke and nep-upt
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://epublications.marquette.edu/econ_workingpapers/79 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: A Contextualist Approach to Health Economics (2021)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mrq:wpaper:2021-06

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers and Research from Marquette University, Center for Global and Economic Studies and Department of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Andrew G. Meyer ().