Scribner Seminar Program
Course Description

Economic and Social Challenges to Global Health

Instructor(s): Peter von Allmen, Economics

An apple a day?  Probably not.  Millions of people in developing nations suffer every day due to a lack of basic medical care.  Spend our way to health?  Not necessarily.  The United States has the highest health care expenditures in the world but fails to generate the best health outcomes for the population as a whole.  While miracles are possible for some, crisis is routine for many.  For developed nations, the primary challenge is to choose and implement an efficient system to distribute health care resources across the economic and social spectrum consistent with that nation's notion of equity.  At the other extreme, in the developing world the inability to obtain and distribute basic resources such as clean water, routine vaccines and antibiotics threaten the health of millions. In this course, we will consider these and other major challenges to human health through the multiple lenses of economics, social justice, technology and politics.