Preparing for Future Pandemics

The COVID-19 pandemic stimulated debate about the extent to which societies are willing to make trade-offs between health and economic activity. At a recent CHDS seminar, Emily Lancsar discussed her recent research quantifying: 1) how much the public is willing to pay to avoid mortality from future pandemics; and 2) which health and economic policies the public wants their government to invest in to prepare for and respond to the next pandemic.

Using discrete choice experiment surveys in the UK, US, Canada, and Australia, Professor Lancsar found that the total amount the public was willing to trade off to avoid one death ranged from about $5 million to about $7 million. The values are higher than the default value per statistical life (VSL) estimates used for each country except the US. Cash transfers were the only significantly favored economic policy in each country. The most favored health policies involved improving contract tracing, increasing health system capacity, and encouraging the use of face masks. These public preferences will be useful in informing government investment in future pandemic preparedness.

Learn more: Read the publication, Preparing for Future Pandemics: A Multi-National Comparison of Health and Economics Trade-Offs
Learn more: Read the related publication, Valuing COVID-19 Mortality and Morbidity Risk Reductions in U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Regulatory Impact Analyses
Learn more: Resource Pack: Valuing Health and Longevity In BCA