The origins of health economic evaluation: What can we learn from history?

Abstract: This seminar provides a broad overview of the development of economic methods for evaluating public health and medical interventions prior to the 1970s in 3 sections:

a) Attempts to place a monetary value on life during the Victorian era;
b) Early contributions, such as the work of Chapin and Sydenstricker, to evaluate public health interventions prior to World War II;
c) Development of economic evaluation during and after World War II, particularly the development of methods both by the US military and by public health researchers. 

The seminar will identify commonalities in the problems and methods of evaluation, as well as early attempts to use economic evaluation for policy analysis in the UK. It will end with a list of five classic papers all health economists should read to appreciate the history of their discipline.