This research programme, supported by the Health Research Board, is being carried out by a team of economists and sociologists at the Economic and Social Research Institute, the Institute for the Study of Social Change at University College Dublin, and the University of Ulster. It brings the perspectives of health economics and sociology to bear on the provision and use of health services and on health inequalities in Ireland, to identify key causal mechanisms and priority areas for effective intervention.

Key research areas in the programme include

• Patterns of General Practitioner visiting and prescribing
• Access, incentives and efficiency in acute hospital care
• The role of private health insurance
• Health care use versus need, across the income distribution and by region
• Health inequalities
• Disability and its impact on labour force participation, living standards, and exclusion.