Introduction

Research on the determinants of (good) health belongs to several disciplines – biology, medicine, epidemiology, public health, psychology, and sociology to name some of the most important and influential ones with a long history in the field. Economics is a relative newcomer. On the public health policy scene, health economics has often been considered as the provider of costing exercises (if considered at all), while the answers to the challenges of high costs of illness are to be looked for elsewhere, to those disciplines that have traditionally provided the information for public health interventions. The presence of health economists in government committees on public health issues is an exception.