March 2012

IZA Policy Paper No. 38: Ethical and Economic Perspectives on Global Health Interventions

in: 2014, G.W. Brown, G. Yamey, S. Wamala (eds.):.Handbook of Global Health Policy, Wiley-Blackwell, 2014

Interventions that improve childhood health directly improve the quality of life and, in addition, have multiplier effects, producing sustained population and economic gains in poor countries. We suggest how contemporary global institutions shaping the development, pricing and distribution of vaccines and drugs may be modified to deliver large improvements in health. To support a justice argument for such modification, we show how the current global economic order may contribute to perpetuating poverty and poor health in less-developed countries.