Opportunity cost

One of the concepts that a health policy maker should be aware about it is the measurement of opportunity cost in a policy or program. For example, if a city decides to build a hospital on vacant land it owns, the opportunity cost is the value of the benefits forgone of some other thing which might have been done with the land and construction funds instead.

Suppose you have a full time job with some years of experiences and you decide to come to school and study Dr PH program, the opportunity cost for pursuing this degree is the full time job, Job promotion and the other valuable things that you will leave behind for participation in the degree program.

Opportunity cost is the center of microeconomics and was developed by Friedrich Freiherr von Wieser (July 10, 1851–July 22, 1926) as an early member of the Austrian school of economics.