Adam Wagstaff was Research Manager in the Development Research Group (Human Development) from 2009 until his passing in May 2020. His DPhil in economics was from the University of York and, before joining the Bank, he was a Professor of Economics at the University of Sussex. He was an associate editor of the Journal of Health Economics for 20 years and published extensively on a variety of aspects of the field, including health financing and health systems reform; health, equity and poverty; the valuation of health; the demand for and production of health; efficiency measurement; and illicit drugs and drug enforcement. Much of his recent work had been on health insurance, health financing, vulnerability and health shocks, and provider payment reform. He had extensive experience of China and Vietnam but also worked on countries in Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and Europe and Central Asia, as well as other countries in East Asia. Outside health economics, he published on efficiency measurement in the public sector, the measurement of trade union power, the redistributive effect and sources of progressivity of the personal income tax, and the redistributive effect of economic growth.

The Adam Wagstaff Award for Outstanding Research on the Economics of Healthcare Financing and Delivery in Low- and Middle-Income Countries will be hosted by iHEA and associated with the biennial iHEA congress.This award reflects Adam’s lifelong commitment to improving healthcare financing and delivery and promoting equity in low- and middle-income countries. It also contributes to iHEA’s efforts to promote excellence in health economics globally and its commitment to internationalization through greater inclusion of low- and middle-income country researchers.