The standard models of human behavior in economics, which assume that people are well-informed economic agents striving to maximize a set of consistent preferences, frequently produce patently faulty predictions. Moreover, typical measures of economic growth, such as those based on GDP, focus on material wellbeing (wealth), rather than on health (equity), education and the environment.
Policies based on distorted measures of wellbeing lead to distorted and unintended policy outcomes.
Dismissing the inter-disciplinary discrepancies by arguing that economic agents often behave “as if” they were rational is no longer plausible, given the important prediction failures that result. It is imperative for policy makers to account for the intersectoral impact of (economic) policies and the uncertainty associated with these.
To put things into perspective, several current topics, issues and developments, such as recent economic crises, the Brexit, migration crisis, rise of populism and other EU-developments will be examined under that prism, as well as the different approaches used to alleviate these, and their potential impact on health and health equity.
Dr. Nikolaos Antonakakis is Associate Professor of Economics and Head of Department of Business and Management at Webster Vienna Private University, as well as a Visiting Fellow at the University of Portsmouth. He previously held a position of Assistant Professor of Economics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Wien) and at the Johannes Kepler University in Austria, and was Senior Lecturer in Economics and Finance at the University of Portsmouth. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics and an MSc in International and Financial Economics from the University of Strathclyde, as well as a BSc in Economics from Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB). Nikolaos Antonakakis is an interdisciplinary researcher with a focus, among others, on International Macroeconomics and International Finance, European Integration, Applied Econometrics, Health Economics, Energy Economics and Tourism Economics.
Welcoming, hosting and moderation
Joy Ladurner
Head of Taskforce Socioeconomic Determinants of Health (TF-SÖD)
Gesundheit Österreich GmbH