Leeson Peter T, Thompson Henry A
Department of Economics, George Mason University, MS 3G4, Fairfax, VA 22030 USA.
Public Choice. 2023;195(1-2):5-41. doi: 10.1007/s11127-021-00900-2. Epub 2021 Mar 22.
Public choice scholars have attended only modestly to issues in public health. We expect that to change rapidly given the Covid-19 pandemic. The time therefore is ripe for taking stock of public-choice relevant scholarship that addresses issues in public health. That is what we do. Our stock-taking highlights three themes: (1) Public health regulations often are driven by private interests, not public ones. (2) The allocation of public health resources often reflects private interests, not public ones. (3) Public health policies may have perverse effects, undermining instead of promoting health-consumer welfare.
公共选择理论学者对公共卫生问题的关注一直较为有限。鉴于新冠疫情，我们预计这种情况将迅速改变。因此，现在是时候对涉及公共卫生问题的公共选择相关学术研究进行评估了。这正是我们所做的。我们的评估突出了三个主题：（1）公共卫生法规往往由私人利益而非公共利益驱动。（2）公共卫生资源的分配往往反映私人利益而非公共利益。（3）公共卫生政策可能会产生适得其反的效果，损害而非促进健康消费者的福利。
