Decision rules for allocation of finances to health systems strengthening

Morton, Alec, Thomas, Ranjeeta ORCID: 0000-0002-0947-4574 and Smith, Peter C. (2016) Decision rules for allocation of finances to health systems strengthening. Journal of Health Economics, 49. 97 - 108. ISSN 0167-6296

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Abstract

A key dilemma in global health is how to allocate funds between disease-specific “vertical projects” on the one hand and “horizontal programmes” which aim to strengthen the entire health system on the other. While economic evaluation provides a way of approaching the prioritisation of vertical projects, it provides less guidance on how to prioritise between horizontal and vertical spending. We approach this problem by formulating a mathematical program which captures the complementary benefits of funding both vertical projects and horizontal programmes. We show that our solution to this math program has an appealing intuitive structure. We illustrate our model by computationally solving two specialised versions of this problem, with illustrations based on the problem of allocating funding for infectious diseases in sub-Saharan Africa. We conclude by reflecting on how such a model may be developed in the future and used to guide empirical data collection and theory development.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2016 The Authors
Divisions:	Health Policy
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HJ Public Finance R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
JEL classification:	I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I10 - General C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C6 - Mathematical Methods and Programming > C60 - General C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C6 - Mathematical Methods and Programming > C61 - Optimization Techniques; Programming Models; Dynamic Analysis C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C6 - Mathematical Methods and Programming > C63 - Computational Techniques
Date Deposited:	19 Jul 2019 15:57
Last Modified:	06 Apr 2024 18:15
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/101206

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