title: A new axiomatic approach to the evaluation of population health.
abstract: In this paper we explore the implications of normative principles for the evaluation of population health. We formalize those principles as axioms for social preferences over distributions of health for a given population. We single out several focal population health evaluation functions, which represent social preferences, as a result of combinations of those axioms. Our results provide new rationale for popular theories in health economics, such as the unweighted aggregation of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) or healthy years equivalents (HYEs) and generalizations of the two, aimed to capture concerns for distributive justice, without resorting to controversial assumptions on individual preferences.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jens Leth
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Hougaard
authors.forename: Juan D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Moreno-Ternero
authors.forename: Lars Peter
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Østerdal
mesh_terms: D004470:Economics, Medical; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D017059:Models, Econometric; D019057:Quality-Adjusted Life Years