Incorporating equity in economic evaluations: a multi-attribute equity state approach

Jeff Round () and Mike Paulden
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Jeff Round: University of Bristol
Mike Paulden: University of Alberta

The European Journal of Health Economics, 2018, vol. 19, issue 4, No 2, 489-498

Abstract: Abstract In publicly funded health care systems, decision makers must continually balance often conflicting priorities of efficiency and equity. Health economists have developed a set of highly sophisticated analytical methods for assessing efficiency, but less attention has been paid to formally incorporating equity considerations into analyses. As a result, where equity is considered is often informal, ad hoc and/or simplistic. This paper is a proposal for a mechanism for formally incorporating equity within the decision process. It begins with an overview of the current literature on equity weighting. It then considers the case of a single equity domain and illustrates how this is currently applied in practice by the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. It then proposes a more comprehensive method for considering the multi-attribute equity state, where a population exhibits more than one trait considered worthy of differential weighting. Finally, the paper proposes a mechanism by which this could be applied in practice, and concludes with a discussion of the challenges for applying multi-attribute equity weighting.

Keywords: Equity; Equity weights; Distributional weights; Cost-effectiveness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I1 I10 I14 I18 I19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10198-017-0897-3

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