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Capabilities as menus: A non-welfarist basis for QALY evaluation

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  • Bleichrodt, Han
  • Quiggin, John

Abstract

Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) are the most widely used measure of health in economic evaluations of health care. Within a welfarist framework QALYs are consistent with people's preferences under stringent assumptions. Several authors have argued that QALYs are a valid measure of health within an extra-welfarist framework. This paper studies the applicability of QALYs within the best-known extra-welfarist framework, Sen's capability approach. We propose a procedure to value capability sets and provide a foundation for QALYs within Sen's capability approach. We show that, under appropriate conditions, the ranking of capabilities can be represented locally by a QALY measure and that a willingness to pay for QALYs can be defined. The validity of QALYs as a general measure of health requires the same stringent conditions as in a welfarist framework.

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  • Bleichrodt, Han & Quiggin, John, 2013. "Capabilities as menus: A non-welfarist basis for QALY evaluation," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 128-137.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:32:y:2013:i:1:p:128-137
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2012.10.004
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    2. Engel, L. & Chudyk, A.M. & Ashe, M.C. & McKay, H.A. & Whitehurst, D.G.T. & Bryan, S., 2016. "Older adults' quality of life – Exploring the role of the built environment and social cohesion in community-dwelling seniors on low income," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1-11.
    3. Paul Anand & Laurence S. J. Roope & Anthony J. Culyer & Ron Smith, 2020. "Disability and multidimensional quality of life: A capability approach to health status assessment," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(7), pages 748-765, July.
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    5. Pickles, Kristen & Lancsar, Emily & Seymour, Janelle & Parkin, David & Donaldson, Cam & Carter, Stacy M., 2019. "Accounts from developers of generic health state utility instruments explain why they produce different QALYs: A qualitative study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Capability approach; QALYs; Menu-dependent choice;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D70 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - General
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality

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