Publication:
The Economic Control of Infectious Diseases

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dc.contributor.authorGersovitz, Mark
dc.contributor.authorHammer, Jeffrey S.
dc.date.accessioned2014-08-26T14:36:56Z
dc.date.available2014-08-26T14:36:56Z
dc.date.issued2001-05
dc.description.abstractDespite interesting work on infectious diseases by such economists as Peter Francis, Michael Kremer, and Tomas Philipson, the literature does not set out the general structure of externalities involved in the prevention, and care of such diseases. The authors identify two kinds of externality. First, infectious people can infect other people, who in turn can infect others, and so on, in what the authors call the pure infection externality. In controlling their own infection, people do not take into account the social consequence of their infection. Second, in the pure prevention externality, one individual's preventive actions (such as killing mosquitoes) may directly affect the probability of others becoming infected, whether or not the preventive action succeeds for the individual undertaking it. The authors provide a general framework for discussing these externalities, and the role of government interventions to offset them. They move the discussion away from its focus on HIV (a fatal infection for which there are few interventions), and on vaccinations (which involve plausibly discrete decisions), to more general ideas of prevention, and cure applicable to many diseases for which interventions exhibit a continuum of intensities, subject to diminishing marginal returns. Infections, and actions to prevent, or cure them entail costs. Individuals balance those parts of different costs that they can actually control. In balancing costs to society, government policy should take individual behavior into account. Doing so requires a strategy combining preventive, and curative interventions, to offset both the pure infection externality, and the pure prevention externality. The relative importance of the strategy's components depends on: 1) The biology of the disease - including whether an infection is transmitted from person to person, or by vectors. 2) The possible outcomes of infection: death, recovery with susceptibility, or recovery with immunity. 3) The relative costs of the interventions. 4) Whether interventions are targeted at the population as a whole, the uninfected, the infected, or contacts between the uninfected, and the infected. 5) The behavior of individuals that leads to the two types of externalities.en
dc.identifierhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/05/1346390/economic-control-infectious-diseases
dc.identifier.doi10.1596/1813-9450-2607
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10986/19657
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherWorld Bank, Washington, DC
dc.relation.ispartofseriesPolicy Research Working Paper;No. 2607
dc.rightsCC BY 3.0 IGO
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/
dc.subjectBIOLOGY
dc.subjectBIRTH RATE
dc.subjectCONDOMS
dc.subjectDEATH RATE
dc.subjectDECENTRALIZATION
dc.subjectDECENTRALIZED DECISIONS
dc.subjectDIMINISHING MARGINAL UTILITY
dc.subjectDIMINISHING RETURNS
dc.subjectDISCOUNT RATE
dc.subjectDISCOUNTED VALUE
dc.subjectECONOMIC LOSS
dc.subjectECONOMICS
dc.subjectECONOMICS LITERATURE
dc.subjectECONOMISTS
dc.subjectEPIDEMIOLOGY
dc.subjectEQUATIONS
dc.subjectEQUILIBRIUM
dc.subjectEXPENDITURES
dc.subjectEXTERNALITIES
dc.subjectEXTERNALITY
dc.subjectFAMILIES
dc.subjectGOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES
dc.subjectGROWTH RATE
dc.subjectHEALTH INTERVENTIONS
dc.subjectHEALTH OUTCOMES
dc.subjectIMMUNITY
dc.subjectINCENTIVE EFFECTS
dc.subjectINCOME
dc.subjectINCOMES
dc.subjectINFECTIOUS DISEASES
dc.subjectINSURANCE
dc.subjectINTEREST RATE
dc.subjectINTERVENTION
dc.subjectINTERVENTIONS
dc.subjectISOLATION
dc.subjectMARGINAL COST
dc.subjectMARGINAL COSTS
dc.subjectMARGINAL PRODUCTS
dc.subjectMULTIPLIERS
dc.subjectNET INCOME
dc.subjectOPTIMIZATION
dc.subjectPB
dc.subjectPOPULATION GROWTH
dc.subjectPRIVATE GOODS
dc.subjectSEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES
dc.subjectTARGETING
dc.subjectTOTAL COSTS
dc.subjectUTILITY FUNCTION
dc.subjectVACCINATION
dc.subjectVALUATION
dc.titleThe Economic Control of Infectious Diseasesen
dspace.entity.typePublication
okr.crossref.titleThe Economical Control of Infectious Diseases
okr.date.disclosure2001-05-31
okr.date.doiregistration2025-04-10T07:19:49.236220Z
okr.doctypePublications & Research::Policy Research Working Paper
okr.doctypePublications & Research
okr.docurlhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/05/1346390/economic-control-infectious-diseases
okr.globalpracticePoverty
okr.globalpracticeGovernance
okr.guid593191468782131159
okr.identifier.doi10.1596/1813-9450-2607
okr.identifier.externaldocumentum000094946_01062204005593
okr.identifier.internaldocumentum1346390
okr.identifier.reportWPS2607
okr.language.supporteden
okr.pdfurlhttp://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2001/07/06/000094946_01062204005593/Rendered/PDF/multi0page.pdfen
okr.sectorHealth and other social services :: Health
okr.themeHuman development :: Other communicable diseases
okr.themeHuman development :: Malaria
okr.themeHuman development :: Tuberculosis
okr.topicHealth Monitoring and Evaluation
okr.topicEconomic Theory and Research
okr.topicPoverty Reduction::Poverty Impact Evaluation
okr.topicPublic Sector Development::Decentralization
okr.topicEnvironmental Economics and Policies
okr.topicAgricultural Knowledge and Information Systems
okr.topicDisease Control and Prevention
okr.unitPublic Service Delivery, Development Research Group
okr.volume1
relation.isSeriesOfPublication26e071dc-b0bf-409c-b982-df2970295c87
relation.isSeriesOfPublication.latestForDiscovery26e071dc-b0bf-409c-b982-df2970295c87
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