Valuing health and human life: past, present and future

Monetary values of health and human life are central to many public policy evaluations, such as new roads to reduce the death toll, improving health by reducing air pollution, and investment in healthcare to improve health and longevity. The value of a statistical life (VSL) was developed to value mortality-risk reduction and is broadly used in such evaluations. The quality-adjusted life year (QALY) was simultaneously developed for economic evaluation within the health sector.

In this lecture, Professor Emily Lancsar will reflect on both approaches to valuing life and health, outlining a number of implications of the departure of health economics from the economics mainstream in its approach. Emily will also present a program of work on valuing life and health that addresses these implications, including distributional considerations. She will conclude with an overview of new work to reconcile the two approaches and the implications arising from the potential for broader cross-sectoral comparisons across the public policy sphere.

About the presenter

Professor Emily Lancsar

Emily is Head of the Department of Health Services Research and Policy at the ANU College of Health and Medicine. She is an economist with particular interests in: valuing life and health; modelling choice, preferences and behaviour; economic evaluation; and policy analysis.

Emily has received a number of prestigious grants and fellowships. She is a member of several government advisory committees, including the Medical Services Advisory Committee, and a past member of the Evaluation Sub-Committee of MSAC and the Economic Sub-Committee of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee. She is an Associate Editor of Health Economics and a past Vice President of the Australian Health Economics Society.

View Emily's full bio here.

Parking

Pay-as-you-go parking is available near Birch Building 35, and can be accessed from both Daley Road and Science Road.

This public lecture will be recorded

The recording will be made publicly available on the CBE website
after the event.

Event participants will have the opportunity to ask questions or make comments after the public lecture. If you do not wish for your question or comment to be included in the recording, please contact the CBE Events team.