This volume reflects both the main issues confronting health economics
and the state of the art in health economics a decade before the end of
the twentieth century. It contains a selection from almost 150 papers
presented at the Second World Congress on Health Economics, held at the
University of ZUrich, Switzerland, 10-14 September 1990. This is ten
years after the last Congress (held in Leiden, The Netherlands) and more
than 17 years after the Tokyo meeting organized by the International
Economic Associ- ation (which might be called the First World Congress
were it not for its small size and symposium-like character). Out of the
16 papers appearing in this book, only four were invited, and they were
refereed like all the others. The remaining contributions are survivors
of stiff competition. However, in spite of the large sample of papers we
were able to draw from, certain gaps of coverage persist. In particular,
environmental impacts on health were designated as a field of priority
interest in the call for papers to this Congress. Yet, not even half a
dozen contribu- tions were submitted, which is remarkable in view of the
intense interest of the public in the health effects of environmental
degradation, ranging from noise level to ozone concentration. Another
specially designed field was the political economy of health, dealing
with the behavior of policy makers when deciding about changes in the
health care systems. It did not attract as many contributions as we had
hoped for or expected.
