Resources for the Future has a long tradition of pioneering research on health issues, including early work on schistosomiasis control, fertility, and a seminal 1970 study exploring the link between air pollution and mortality.
Today RFF researchers are building on that tradition by employing creative approaches to a host of health-related policy challenges, including valuing disparate health outcomes, and analyzing the current regulatory issues surrounding safe drinking water. By applying methods first developed in the environmental economics field to the analysis of health issues, RFF research is opening up new avenues for cross-disciplinary research and policy solutions.
Over the past few years, much of RFF’s recent work in the field of human health was carried out by Senior Fellow Ramanan Laxminarayan and his colleagues who were part of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy (CDDEP). The Center is now an independent organization. To learn more about their work, please visit
cddep.org.