title: Merging economics and epidemiology to improve the prediction and management of infectious disease.
abstract: Mathematical epidemiology, one of the oldest and richest areas in mathematical biology, has significantly enhanced our understanding of how pathogens emerge, evolve, and spread. Classical epidemiological models, the standard for predicting and managing the spread of infectious disease, assume that contacts between susceptible and infectious individuals depend on their relative frequency in the population. The behavioral factors that underpin contact rates are not generally addressed. There is, however, an emerging a class of models that addresses the feedbacks between infectious disease dynamics and the behavioral decisions driving host contact. Referred to as "economic epidemiology" or "epidemiological economics," the approach explores the determinants of decisions about the number and type of contacts made by individuals, using insights and methods from economics. We show how the approach has the potential both to improve predictions of the course of infectious disease, and to support development of novel approaches to infectious disease management.
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA, charles.perrings@asu.edu.
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Perrings
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Castillo-Chavez
authors.forename: Gerardo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chowell
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Daszak
authors.forename: Eli P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Fenichel
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Finnoff
authors.forename: Richard D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Horan
authors.forename: A Marm
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Kilpatrick
authors.forename: Ann P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Kinzig
authors.forename: Nicolai V
authors.initials: NV
authors.lastname: Kuminoff
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Levin
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Morin
authors.forename: Katherine F
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Springborn
mesh_terms: D001519:Behavior; D003140:Communicable Disease Control / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods*; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D015995:Prevalence; D018570:Risk Assessment