Professor Aki Tsuchiya, PhD(Kyoto)
Between March and August each year:
HEDS, ScHARR
The University of Sheffield
Regent Court, 30 Regent Street, Sheffield, S1 4DA, UK
Tel: (+44) (0)114 222 0710
Fax: (+44) (0)114 272 4095
Office: 2018
Between September and February each year:
Department of Economics
The University of Sheffield
9 Mappin Street, Sheffield, S1 4DT, UK
Tel: (+44) (0)114 222 3422
Fax: (+44) (0)114 222 3458
Office: 439
E-mail: a.tsuchiya@sheffield.ac.uk
Biography
I was awarded a personal chair in Health Economics in January 2011. I hold a joint appointment between the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) and the Department of Economics.
The joint appointment means that I work for both the Department of Economics and ScHARR throughout the year. However, in terms of physical location, the Department of Economics is my "home" between September and February each year; and ScHARR is my "home" between March and August.
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 Post-Doctoral Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. I came to Sheffield and joined ScHARR in 2000, where I worked as a Research Associate, a Research Fellow, and a Lecturer. Since 2005 I have held a joint appointment between ScHARR and the Department of Economics, as a Senior Lecturer, a Reader, and a Professor. Currently, I am a member of the EuroQol Group, the Sheffield Centre for Criminological Research, and Director of the Centre for Health and Well-being in Public Policy.
Research interests
- measuring, valuing, and modelling health, and other aspects of well-being
- incorporating equity concerns into social welfare functions
- normative economics of health and beyond
Teaching interests
- health economics for economists
- valuation of health states
- normative health economics
I teach health economics, which is about the application of economic tools to health, health care, and health care insurance. But, to what extent can we apply economics to matters of life and limb? Some think that whenever somebody’s life is at stake, it is unethical to think of costs, 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 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 taking an informed view on such issues, and then to defend these views (which may not agree with mine!).
Professional activities
- Section editor, Efficiency and Equity, Elsevier Online Encyclopaedia of Health Economics
Current projects
- Preparatory study for the Re-evaluation of the EQ-5D Tariff (PRET)
- Developing a uniform Time Trade Off method for states better and worse than dead
- The impact of the physical environment on health and well-being
Key publications
- Devlin N, Tsuchiya A, Buckingham K, Tilling C (2011). A uniform time trade off method for states better and worse than dead: feasibility study of the "lead time" approach. Health Economics 20(3):348-61.
- Dolan P, Tsuchiya A. (2009), The social welfare function and individual responsibility: Some theoretical issues and empirical evidence from health: Journal of Health Economics 28: 210–220
- Cookson R, Tsuchiya A, McCabe C (2008). Public health care resource allocation and the rule of rescue. Journal of Medical Ethics. 34: 40-544
- Tsuchiya A, Brazier J, Roberts J. (2006), Comparison of valuation methods used to generate the EQ5D and the SF6D value sets in the UK. Journal of Health Economics 25(2):334-346.
- Tsuchiya A, Williams A (2005). A "fair innings" between the sexes: are men being treated inequitably? Social Science & Medicine 60:277-286.
- Abásolo I, Tsuchiya A (2004). Exploring social welfare functions and violation of monotonicity: an example from inequalities in health. Journal of Health Economics 23(2):313-329.
A full list of publications can be downloaded from the link in the box on the right-hand side of this page.
Administrative roles
- Director for Centre for Health and Well-being in Public Policy
- Course Director for MSc Economics and Health Economics
- Director of Research and Innovation (Department of Economics)
- PGR lead (HEDS, ScHARR)
- Member of Teaching Functional Working Group (HEDS, ScHARR)