Economic Evaluation & Decision Support

Workstrand 7

Lead - Robin Purshouse

 Robin Purhouse Headshot

What is this workstrand about?

Workstrand 7 is developing a decision support tool to help policy makers and analysts explore the estimated effects of policy choices.

The range of impacts capable of being modelled by the tool include aspects such as the population’s health, emotional and financial wellbeing, and measures of an area’s economic performance. The tool can also show how these impacts change over time, how the impacts are distributed across the local population, and both when and where unintended consequences might arise.

A crucial part of the tool is showing how alternative policy options lead to different sets of impacts – allowing policy makers to identify options that fit best with their strategic priorities and with public preferences for improving society overall or for reducing inequality.

Workstand Activities

Workstrand 7 is developing decision support tools that are grounded in the realities of policy making, are useful to SIPHER’s policy partners, and have potential for wider take-up by other policy organisations.

These tools will help policy makers to identify policy strategies for improving wellbeing and reducing health inequalities that make economic and financial sense when set in a multi-sectoral context that is broader than traditional public health perspectives.

We also hope to stimulate a search for adaptive policy options that optimise desired outcomes in the face of the deep uncertainties faced by policy makers.