Health economics assignment

Review questions on chapter 1&2

1 define economics
 Economics is the study of how society manages it’s scarce recourses.
Remember; scarcity is the limited nature of society’s resource.
Economics is the study of how people use scarce resources to meet unlimited demand

2 why is economics important for households? Society? And you as a health science student
 Economics is important for households because;

A household must allocate its scarce resources among it’s various members, talking into
account each members abilities, Efforts and desires.

 Economics is important for societies because

A society must decide what jobs will be done & who will do them the management of

Society’s resources is important because recourses a scarce

 Economics is also important for health science students because;

A health science student should know how to allocate resources, how to manage the
scarce Resources among varies society that in need of the resources

 Also to teach the community how to manage his scarce resources

3 What are the broad categories of economics?

Economics have two classifications these are;

I. micro economics – deals with behavior & decisions of smaller unit like individuals &
businesses
II. macro economics- deals with economic theory and the economic decisions of large
bodies like Government.

4 what is an opportunity cost?

Is the value of the next best opportunity given up in order to enjoy a particular good or service
(Amacher, & vibrich, 1986)

5 What do you mean by society faces short run trade of between unemployment and
 Inflation?
 The Philips curve illustrations the tradeoff between inflation and unemployment;
Decrease inflation = increase unemployment.
 It’s a short run trade off
6 how can government regulate falling health care markets
 Government can regulate the falling of health care market by;
 Managing the scarce resource utilization
 By replacing expensive resources by cheapest one by using human resource mgt etc.…
7 What are the main principles of economics?
Ten principles of economics are;
 How people make decisions
I. people face tradeoffs
II. the cost of something is what you give up to get it
III. rational people think art the margin
IV. people respond to incentives
 how people interact with each other
V. trade can make everyone better off
VI. markets are usually a good way to organize economic activity
VII. Governments can sometimes impale economic outcomes.
 The forces and trends that affect how the economy as a whole works
VIII. the standard of living depends on a country’s productions
IX. prices rise when the government prints too much money
X. Society faces a short –run tradeoff between inflation and unemployment.

8 How do you relate health and development?

 Health and development of one country is closely related by many reasons. For instance;
 If the development of the country is growth;
 People will have developed life style
 People can gate balanced diet
 People can easily get health services
 Mother & child death will decrease
 On the other hand if the health of the society is protected or if the people of one country
is health there will more man power and development of that country will increase.

9What are the uses of development indicators?

 Indicators have several uses
 They allow us to compare different countries using standards agreed measurements
 They allow us to chart progress over a period of time
 They give us a ‘snapshot” of a country, economically, politically and socially.
 9 what is the difference between GNP & GDP
 Gross national product (GNP)
This is the value of all goods produced services provided in a country and services earned
abroad in one year.
 Gross domestic products (GDP) this is the value of all goods produced services
provided in a country in a year.
10 Is GDP or per capital income a good growth indicator? Why?
NO, because;
 The good indicators of growth are GNP or (life expectance, adult literacy rates because it
tells you the proportion of adults who can read or write in a country
 Generally GDP is also traditional growth indicators GDP or per capital income is not
goods growth indicator

12 what is the difference between economic and social indicators.

Economic indicators social indicators

 Measure wealth and levels of  indicate quality of life,

industrialization  health, diet, education
 Traditional  modern
 It includes GNP&GDP  It includes; death rate
 Life expectancy
 Adult literacy
 Calories per person
 Protein per day
 Population per doctor
 Infant mortality etc.
 13 Mention some elements of social indicators?
 Elements of social indicators including
 Death rate
 Life experiencing
 Adult literacy
 Calories per person
Other include
 Protein per person per day
 Population per doctor
 Infant mortality

14 mention some criticisms of using some economic indications such as GNP&GDP?

 GNP is based on the us dollar and fluctuations in its relative value each adversely affect
data
 GNP does not make allowance for the purchasing power of the loccu currency which can
vary greatly between countries.
 GNP does not take account of the subsistence part of an agricultural production or of
trade by way of barter
 State controlled economics such as china or North Korea may have distracted figures due
to state dxn of the economy according to lay-term planning or ideology
 15 what are the composite indicators of development?

Physical quality of life (PQL) ---- it uses 3 social indicators

 Life expectancy
 Literacy rate
 Infant mortality

Human development index (HDI) ---- it uses 3 mixed indicators

 Wealth-GDP per capital

 Life expectancy
 Educational achievement

16 what is the difference between physical quality of life index and human development index?
Mention their respective elements?

See the table on the next page

PQLI HDI

Uses 3 social indicators uses 3 mixed indicators

Life expectancy wealth - GDP per capital

Literacy rate life expectancy

Infant mortality educational achievement