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AXIOMATIC FOUNDATIONS FOR COST‐EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS
Author(s) -
Canning David
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
health economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.55
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1099-1050
pISSN - 1057-9230
DOI - 10.1002/hec.2889
Subject(s) - axiom , social welfare function , axiomatic system , metric (unit) , anonymity , pareto principle , social welfare , economics , welfare , cost–benefit analysis , mathematical economics , cost effectiveness analysis , function (biology) , actuarial science , microeconomics , econometrics , cost effectiveness , mathematics , computer science , operations management , ecology , geometry , computer security , evolutionary biology , political science , law , market economy , biology
We show that individual utilities can be measured in units of healthy life years. Social preferences over these life metric utilities are assumed to satisfy the Pareto principle, anonymity, and invariance to a change in origin. These axioms generate a utilitarian social welfare function implying the use of cost‐effectiveness analysis in ordering health projects, based on maximizing the healthy years equivalents gained from a fixed health budget. For projects outside the health sector, our cost‐effectiveness axioms imply a form of cost–benefit analysis where both costs and benefits are measured in equivalent healthy life years. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.