Professor Aki Tsuchiya
PhD (Kyoto)
Population Health, School of Medicine and Population Health
School of Economics
Professor of Health Economics
+44 114 222 3422
Full contact details
Population Health, School of Medicine and Population Health
9 Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 4DT
- Profile
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I came to the UK in 1998 as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Health Economics, University of York, funded as an Overseas Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. I came to the University of Sheffield and joined what was then the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR; now Division of Population Health) in 2000, where I worked as a Research Associate, a Research Fellow, and a Lecturer. Since 2005, I have held a joint appointment between the School of Economics and ScHARR, as a Senior Lecturer, a Reader, and a Professor.
- Research interests
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- Eliciting and modelling preferences for health, and other aspects of wellbeing
- Incorporating distributional concerns into social welfare functions
- Normative economics of health and beyond
I am interested in supervising PhD students in normative issues related to resource allocation and priority setting in health and wellbeing.
Current projects
- SIPHER (System-science Informed Public Health and Economic Research for Non-communicable Disease prevention)
- Policy Modelling for Health (HealthMod): 2024-2028
- Economic Methods of Evaluation in Health & Care Interventions (EEPRU III): 2024-2028
- Publications
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Journal articles
- Eliciting public preferences across health and wellbeing dimensions: an equivalent income value set for SIPHER-7. Health Economics. View this article in WRRO
- Do they just know more, or do they also have different preferences? An exploratory analysis of the effects of self-reporting serious health problems on health state valuation. Social Science and Medicine, 315.
- The EQ-HWB: overview of the development of a measure of health and wellbeing and key results. Value in Health, 25(4), 482-491. View this article in WRRO
- Equity in healthcare access and service coverage for older people : a scoping review of the conceptual literature. Integrated Healthcare Journal, 4(1), 1-18. View this article in WRRO
- The QALY at 50 : one story many voices. Social Science & Medicine. View this article in WRRO
- Valuing child and adolescent health: a qualitative study on different perspectives and priorities taken by the adult general public. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 19. View this article in WRRO
- What is the best approach to adopt for identifying the domains for a new measure of health, social care and carer-related quality of life to measure quality adjusted life years? Application to the development of the EQ-HWB?. European Journal of Health Economics. View this article in WRRO
- Comparing aversions to outcome inequality and social risk in health and income : an empirical analysis using hypothetical scenarios with losses. Health Economics. View this article in WRRO
- Manipulating the Five Dimensions of the EuroQol Instrument: The Effects on Self-Reporting Actual Health and Valuing Hypothetical Health States. Medical Decision Making. View this article in WRRO
- An exploration of the non‐iterative time trade‐off method to value health states. Health Economics, 27(8), 1247-1263. View this article in WRRO
- How Robust Are Value Judgments of Health Inequality Aversion? Testing for Framing and Cognitive Effects. Medical Decision Making, 37(6), 635-646. View this article in WRRO
- Valuing health at the end of life: A stated preference discrete choice experiment. Social Science & Medicine, 124, 48-56. View this article in WRRO
- Is more health always better for society? Exploring public preferences that violate monotonicity.. Theory and Decision. View this article in WRRO
- A UNIFORM TIME TRADE OFF METHOD FOR STATES BETTER AND WORSE THAN DEAD: FEASIBILITY STUDY OF THE 'LEAD TIME' APPROACH. HEALTH ECON, 20(3), 348-361.
- Determining the parameters in a social welfare function using stated preference data: an application to health. Applied Economics, 43(18), 2241-2250. View this article in WRRO
- Equality of what in health? Distinguishing between outcome egalitarianism and gain egalitarianism.. Health Econ, 18(2), 147-159.
- The social welfare function and individual responsibility: Some theoretical issues and empirical evidence. J HEALTH ECON, 28(1), 210-220.
- Public healthcare resource allocation and the Rule of Rescue. J MED ETHICS, 34(7). View this article in WRRO
- A "fair innings" between the sexes: are men being treated inequitably?. Soc Sci Med, 60(2), 277-286.
- Exploring social welfare functions and violation of monotonicity: an example from inequalities in health. J HEALTH ECON, 23(2), 313-329.
- Measuring people's preferences regarding ageism in health: some methodological issues and some fresh evidence.. Soc Sci Med, 57(4), 687-696.
- QALYs and ageism: philosophical theories and age weighting.. Health Econ, 9(1), 57-68.
- Predictors of becoming NEET: a dynamic comparison of the direct and indirect determinants. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A (General).
- Should we consider including a value for ‘hope’ as an additional benefit within HTA?. Value in Health. View this article in WRRO
Reports
- Eliciting public preferences across health and wellbeing dimensions: an equivalent income value set for SIPHER-7. Health Economics. View this article in WRRO
- Teaching interests
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- Health economics for economists
- Valuation of health states
- Normative health economics
I teach health economics, which is about the application of economic concepts to matters of health, healthcare, and healthcare insurance. But, to what extent can we apply economic reasoning to matters of life and limb? Some think that whenever somebody’s life is at stake, it is unethical to think of costs or money, and thus “health” and “economics” sit very awkwardly with each other. However, if we ignore opportunity costs, then efficiency would be compromised and we would achieve less health overall. At the same time, most of us want a health care system that is not just efficient, but also equitable. Health economics enables the analysis of health care systems in the light of efficiency, equity, or both.
In health economics, there are numerous issues that involve value judgements, with no easy right answers. Should we use monetary valuation of health to analyse the efficiency of different drugs? Should health policy aim to maximise health or to maximise more general wellbeing? Should we forego any efficiency in order to improve equity in health outcomes? My approach to teaching is to encourage students to take an informed view on such issues, and then to defend these views (which may not agree with mine!).