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Curriculum Public Health Economics

Public Health Economics

The economics of keeping populations healthy - tobacco and alcohol policy, obesity, tuberculosis, malaria, antibiotic resistance, disease surveillance, DALYs and neglected diseases.

  1. Public Health as an Economic Investment How public health differs from treating individual patients, why it is often underfunded, and why economists see it as one of the best investments a society can make. 📄 Read-aloud
  2. Tobacco Taxes Why raising tobacco taxes is considered one of the most effective ways to reduce smoking, how smokers respond to price changes, and India's approach. 📄 Read-aloud
  3. The Economics of Alcohol Policy How taxes, licensing and prohibition affect drinking and its harms, with lessons from India's state-level prohibition experiments. 📄 Read-aloud
  4. The Economics of Obesity Why obesity has risen worldwide, including in India, the economic costs it imposes, and the policies that can help. 📄 Read-aloud
  5. Tuberculosis: India's Biggest Infectious Killer Why India carries the world's largest tuberculosis burden, the economic costs for families and the country, and the programmes to end TB. 📄 Read-aloud
  6. Fighting Malaria How malaria harms health and economies, the cost-effective tools that cut deaths, and debates about free versus paid bed nets. 📄 Read-aloud
  7. Public Health Economics: Checkpoint 1 Quick checkpoint - five questions on public health investment, tobacco, alcohol, obesity and TB. 5 questions
  8. Antibiotic Resistance: A Tragedy of the Commons Why overuse of antibiotics is making them less effective, how this resembles overfishing a shared resource, and what policies can protect them. 📄 Read-aloud
  9. Disease Surveillance: An Early Warning System for Health How health systems track diseases to detect outbreaks early, why surveillance is a public good, and the high returns of catching epidemics quickly. 📄 Read-aloud
  10. Measuring Health: DALYs and Cost-Effectiveness How economists measure the burden of disease with DALYs and compare health interventions by cost-effectiveness to decide how to spend limited budgets. 📄 Read-aloud
  11. Nudging Healthy Behaviour How insights from behavioural economics, like defaults, reminders and commitment, are used to encourage vaccination, handwashing and medication adherence. 📄 Read-aloud
  12. The Economic Cost of Physical Inactivity How a lack of physical activity raises the risk of disease, the costs to health systems and economies, and policies that encourage active living. 📄 Read-aloud
  13. Neglected Tropical Diseases and Snakebite Why diseases that mainly affect the world's poorest people receive little research and investment, and how cheap treatments and mass drug programmes can help. 📄 Read-aloud

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