By Heather Brown
In April 2018, exactly two years since I agreed to start the exciting project of writing my own book, The Economics of Public Health: Evaluating Public Health Interventions was published by Palgrave Macmillan.
The inspiration for the book stemmed from teaching the health economics module on the Masters of Public Health and chats with students after the module. Many of the people I spoke to worked in local authorities and were interested in undertaking policy evaluation using economic tools but did not have the skills to do it themselves. After looking at what existing textbooks had to offer in terms of guidance, there did not seem to be any that really covered econometric evaluation techniques for public health for the non-econometrician.
After reviewing a book for Palgrave Macmillian, I was asked if I had any book ideas myself and, as a matter of fact, I did! Having earlier identified a gap in the market for guidance on public health evaluation for the non-econometrician, I suggested the topic and they liked it so much that they commissioned the book. This book provides a practical guide on how those working or studying in public health, who do not necessarily have any econometric experience, can use econometric methods to evaluate public health policy. The book uses examples such as: how one could evaluate the impact of minimum pricing of alcohol on consumption in Scotland, exercise interventions to reduce obesity, and changes in the retirement age on health. These real-world scenarios are introduced in conjunction with step-by-step guides to make it easy for people to use evaluative approaches in their day-to-day work.
Following on from the launch of the book, I am running a CPD course which will provide face-to-face training and online resources to help those working in, and studying, public health to apply econometric tools for policy evaluation. If you are interested in signing up, two sessions will be offered: one in October 2018 and another in January 2019. You can register for either of the courses by visiting the links below: