Economics 789 - Political Econ/Public Health

This is a survey course in the political economy of public health, an emergent research stream that seeks to understand the distal political and economic causes of population health in advanced capitalist countries, primarily the United States. It builds on and extends the social determinants of health framework in that it moves even further ?upstream? to the political and economic determinants of the social determinants of health. In other words, this approach examines macro-level societal forces that contribute to the (re)production of social patterns in human health. This represents a return to the origins of public health, captured by Rudolph Virchow?s famous dictum: ?Medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing more than medicine on a grand scale.?

Open to Graduate students only.