Leading health economist who focused on the needs of local populations as opposed to the preference of managers
The health economist Gavin Mooney was a leading advocate of social justice in the provision of health care. Based in Scotland, Scandinavia and, from the mid-1990s onwards, in Australia, he has died at the age of 69, along with his partner Del (Delys) Weston, after they were attacked at their home in Tasmania.
Gavin challenged assumptions about the economics of healthcare by focusing on what communities wanted, as opposed to the preferences of providers, managers and researchers. His political hero, Aneurin Bevan, had given the title In Place of Fear (1952) to his account of the founding of the National Health Service in Britain: Gavin started from the same principles in judging the NHS.
Market failure to achieve goals of social wellbeing had led to government intervention after the second world war, but inequalities in health persisted over the second half of the 20th century. Gavin was one of the first in his field to argue that equity and efficiency are not opposite sides of the performance coin, but intrinsically linked.
His book The Valuation of Human Life (1977) examined the wide variation in the valuation of human life implicit in public policy decisions ranging from "childproof" medicine containers to enclosed cabins on tractors. Recognising that considerations other than health came into play, he then turned to decision-making in the NHS.
In Economics, Medicine and Health Care (1986, third edition 2003) he presented the concept of process utility – using medical treatment to improve an individual's general welfare. Pre-natal screening, for example, provides all sorts of information to prospective parents, allowing them to plan for the future.
Noting that healthcare systems tended to reflect the priorities of providers within which population needs were expected to "fit", Gavin worked with the Danish philosopher Uffe Jensen on community approaches, detailed in Changing Values in Medical and Health Care Decision-Making (1991), and incorporated these ideas into an alternative view of health economics in Challenging Health Economics (2001).
After moving to Australia in the 1990s, Gavin applied these ideas to improving health and social justice for Aboriginal populations, particularly through use of the "citizens' jury", and remained an active campaigner until his death.
Born in Glasgow, Gavin went to North Berwick high school, East Lothian. He graduated in economics from Edinburgh University in 1969.
After working in the Government Economic Service, in 1974 he took up a post in health economics at Aberdeen University, became director of its Health Economics Research Unit on its foundation in 1977, and professor in 1984. The correspondence course that he developed for researchers, managers and clinicians was influential, and he later also oversaw a distance-learning programme through a part-time post at the University of Tromsø, northern Norway.
In 1986 he moved to the University of Copenhagen, then spent a second period at Aberdeen, and in 1996 went to the University of Sydney. His final chair was at Curtin University, in Perth, Western Australia (2000-08). Of his 200 publications, more than 20 were books. The Health of Nations: Towards a New Political Economy came out last year.
I first met Gavin in 1983 when he interviewed me for a position in the research unit at Aberdeen. Although I took up a position at York University, he remained a valued colleague and friend. He is survived by his brother Grant, a retired GP in Scotland.
• Gavin Hunter Mooney, health economist, born 30 October 1943; died 19 December 2012