ch. 1. School policies and children's obesity / Particia M. Anderson, Kristin F. Butcher, Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach -- ch. 2. Alcohol policies and child maltreatment / Sara Markowitz, Michael Grossman, Ryan Conrad -- ch. 3. Child care choices and childhood obesity / Resul Cesur, Chris M. Herbst, Erdal Tekin -- ch. 4. Individual time preferences and health behaviors, with an application to health insurance / W. David Bradford, James F. Burgess -- ch. 5. Disparate effects of CHIP premiums on disenrollment for minorities / James Marton, Cynthia S. Searcy, Jennifer Ghandhi -- ch. 6. Health outcomes from head start participation / Carolina C. Felix, David E. Frisvold -- ch. 7. Universal helmet laws and motorcycle fatalities : a longitudinal analysis of policy changes / Michael T. French, Gulcin Gumus, Jenny F. Homer -- ch. 8. Accounting for racial/ethnic disparities in children's obesity status at 2 years of age / Jason M. Fletcher -- ch. 9. Effects of education on adult health in Sweden : results from a natural experiment / Jasmina Spasojevic -- ch. 10. A survey on the economics of the U.S. pharmaceutical industry / Ian McCarthy -- ch. 11. The indirect impacts of smoking bans in gaming venues / Joseph G. Hirschberg, Jeanette N. Lye.

Across the globe every nation wrestles with how it will pay for, provide, regulate and administer its healthcare system. Health economics is the field of economics that deals with every one of those issues and the difficult issue of allocating resources where the allocation can literally mean life or death, alleviating suffering or not. A key issue that is always mentioned, but little acted on, is the role that preventive measures play in the battle against disease and using limited healthcare resources more efficaciously. This book brings together leading researchers in the healthcare economics field presenting new research on some of these key issues such as the impact of obesity on health, childrens healthcare policies, education and health; and many more.