TY  - JOUR
AU  - Philipson,Tomas
TI  - Economic Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 7037
PY  - 1999
Y2  - March 1999
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7037
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7037.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Tomas Philipson
Irving B. Harris Graduate School
of Public Policy Studies
University of Chicago
1155 E. 60th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
Tel: 773/502-7773
E-Mail: t-philipson@uchicago.edu
AB  - Infectious disease is currently the main cause of mortality in the world and has been even more important historically.  This paper reviews recent research in economic epidemiology. Specifically, it discusses the occurrence of infectious diseases and the effects of public health interventions designed to control them. Several key points include: differences in the predictions regarding short- and long-run disease occurrence between rational and epidemiological epidemics, the nonstandard effects of interventions when epidemics are rational, the desirability and possibility of eradicating infectious diseases, as well as the components of the welfare loss induced by infectious diseases.
ER  -