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Article: Irving Fisher, Victor Fuchs, and the health-government tangle.
- Article from:
- The American Journal of Economics and Sociology
- Article date:
- January 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Blackwell Publishers Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Victor Fuchs alerts the modern world to Irving Fisher's deep and abiding interests in health. To most of us trained in Fisherian models of money, index numbers, and capital markets, this will be a revelation (see Barber 1997). But disappointment will be just a step behind. As Fuchs points out in this volume, Fisher seems to have set his economics aside when approaching health issues. His tubercular condition, more than economists' marginal conditions, appears to have spurred Fisher's health interests. In sharp contrast to the leading health economists of the modern era, whose health commentaries derive from their professional expertise, Fisher was a social crusader on ...