Health preferences and behavioural economics
How people value health, and how real decisions depart from standard models. Explore
Mesfin Genie
Continuing Senior Lecturer in Health Economics
Newcastle Business School, The University of Newcastle, Australia
I study how patients and the public value healthcare, process information, and respond to policy, using choice modelling, behavioural experiments, and applied econometrics.
Research focus
Three questions I work on
Selected work
A project, a paper, and a tool
Project
MandEval
Evaluating the effectiveness and consequences of Australia's COVID-19 vaccine mandates, and what mandate designs the public supports, by combining discrete choice experiments with evidence synthesis.
Publication
Fit for Purpose?
Whether discrete choice experiment designs stay reliable when the health technologies they describe are changing, and how to keep a design fit for purpose (Social Science & Medicine, 2026).
Tool
STEPS decision aid
Turning a discrete choice experiment and cost model into a tool that helps plan the scale-up of field-epidemiology training, developed with the World Bank.
From research to decisions
Research translated into decisions
Much of my work is built to be used. Preference estimates for vaccine mandates are packaged into eMANDEVAL Future so that policymakers can compare designs. A discrete choice experiment for the World Bank FETP business case underpins the STEPS decision aid for planning training scale-up. And an open repository of vaccine-mandate studies turns a scattered literature into a resource others can reuse. More on research impact →
Teaching and supervision
Teaching and research students
I coordinate ECON3111 Behavioural Economics, ECON2112 Health Economics and Finance, and ECON3011 Introduction to Health Economics and Finance, and share open behavioural economics resources. I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD and MSc students; see research supervision for what to include.
Writing and talks
Featured writing
Why 99% does not feel like 100% explains the certainty effect: why a guaranteed outcome feels special and how that shapes health decisions. A recorded webinar is also available. Watch the webinar ↗
Contact
Research, collaboration, and supervision
mesfin.genie@newcastle.edu.au