Events

  • 18 February 2014

    Seminar Series 10: Lecture 4 - Dr Aaron Reeves

    Location: The Teacher Building , St Enoch Square, Glasgow, G1 4DB
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    Dr Aaron Reeves

    Department of Sociology and Nuffield College, University of Oxford

    More than 6 years after the beginning of the Great Recession, constraints on financial resources continue to affect European health systems. As new data steadily becomes available, there has been growing debate on the consequences of the crisis and how best to respond. Some countries are implementing substantial reductions to health and social welfare spending, while others have made additional efforts to protect the most vulnerable. The debate extends to whether these policies are impacting health. Some governments deny any serious problems, indeed pointing to research suggesting recessions may be good for individual’s health. Others point to emerging problems, such as increases in consultations for mental illness, suicides, outbreaks of infectious diseases, and shortages of essential medication. Policy-makers debate whether austerity is the right approach to the crisis and whether the human cost of austerity is an unfortunate but necessary consequence of the financial crisis.

    The session: 1) Reviewed what has happened to public spending, particularly on health and social welfare, in the EU since the start of the financial crisis. 2) Summarised the impact of the economic crisis on population health and access to health services in Europe. 3) Drew lessons from the recession on mitigating the effect of economic downturns for people’s health and health systems.  

    ‘Aaron Reeves works in the Department of Sociology and Nuffield college at the University of Oxford, where he is working an EU-funded project (DEMETRIQ) with Dr. David Stuckler examining natural experiments in relation to poverty-reduction and health as well as exploring the impact of the recession and austerity on health outcomes. Prior to his time at Oxford he worked briefly at the University of Cambridge and completed his PhD in Applied Social & Economic Research with the Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex’.

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