I was going to let Alex' message drop, but since it has been sent to various
lists around the world, yet again tarring all economists with the same
brush, I thought I should respond, at least to his second point.
Actually, I think Alex is probably to some extent right in implying that
health economists in the UK focus too explicitly on health care (the same
cannot be said of economists in general of course (everybody on this list
will have at least heard of Amartya Sen, for example), but then, Alex
probably only ever comes into contact with health economists, and not too
many of them at that). But health economics is hardly the only discipline
that is health care centric (not that thats really a defence for why health
economics ought to be be health care centric). There are a significant
minority of health economists in the UK, however, who are calling for a much
broader perspective within the discipline, and, eventually, I think their
voices will be heard and acted upon. The scenario is not as gloomy as Alex
paints it. In fact, its not gloomy at all...
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alex Scott-Samuel [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Friday, 01 June 2001 16:47
> To:
> Subject: Getting real - response to OHE Annual Lecture
>
> When will the economic establishment get real? Much of this
> lecture (for URL see below) seems to exist in some imagined
> global technocracy. It only comes alive at the bottom of
> page 19 (out of 20) when Dr Alison Frater asks a question
> which situates the macroeconomics of health and development
> in the real political world we all inhabit. Professor
> Sachs' response suggests that he too is well aware of this
> real world, but that he is disempowered from addressing it
> by the hidden rules of the everyday macroeconomic discourse.
>
> Having said that, who in the UK even attempts to enter this
> macroeconomic room? The UK's obsessive pursuit of the
> microeconomics of health care is arguably necessary - but
> massively insufficient. What about some joined-up health
> macroeconomics to take us into the 21st century 'as if
> real life mattered'?
>
> Alex S-S
>
> PS For an honourable exception to this gloomy scenario, see:
> Rhiannon Tudor Edwards. Paradigms and research programmes:
> Is it time to move from health care economics to health
> economics? Health Economics (in press - published online 25
> May 2001)
>
> On Fri, 1 Jun 2001 00:10:35 -0400 "Ruggiero, Mrs. Ana Lucia
> (WDC)" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > OFFICE OF HEALTH ECONOMICS - 8 th ANNUAL LECTURE
> >
> > "The Links of Public Health and Economic Development"
> >
> > by PROFESSOR JEFFREY SACHS
> > 15 May 2001 at The Royal College of Physicians, London
> >
> > Available online as PDF file [20p.] at:
> >
> www.ohe.org/sachs%20edited%20OHE%20transcript%20final%20230501doc.pdf
> >
>
> ******************************************************************
> Alex Scott-Samuel
> EQUAL (Equity in Health Research and Development Unit)
> Department of Public Health
> University of Liverpool
> Whelan Building
> Quadrangle
> Liverpool
> L69 3GB
> Tel (+44)151-794-5569
> Fax (+44)151-794-5588
> e-mail [log in to unmask]
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