AGNES WALKER
MEngSc(NSW), MEcon, PhD(ANU)
Fellow, ACERH
T: +61 2 6125 0564
E: agnes.walker@anu.edu.au

Prior to her current position as Fellow at ACERH, Dr Walker held senior positions in State and Commonwealth Government departments, the Productivity Commission and more recently the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, University of Canberra. In the past ten years her work has focused on Australia’s health sector – inter alia doctors, pharmaceuticals, hospitals, health insurance, and so on – with particular emphasis on socioeconomic aspects, such as health differentials between Australia’s rich and poor.

Dr Walker has headed major health consultancies and projects for the World Health Organisation, the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, the Australian Research Council and the peak body of pharmaceutical companies. She has been an invited speaker at Australian and international conferences and an expert witness at the recent Senate Medicare inquiries. Her current activities include an ARC project on modelling chronic disease prevention and treatment, an assessment of the health of older Australians as it affects their ability to stay in the workforce, and the impact of trends in private hospital insurance coverage on public and private hospital utilisation.

Key research areas include:

• Health economics
• Health and socioeconomic status
• Chronic disease prevention, treatment and costs
• Microsimulation and other types of models.

Selected Publications

Walker A, "Health Status, Health Inequalities and the Ability of Older Australians to Stay in the Labour Force" in Harding, A., Gupta, A., Lloyd, R. and Basu K. (eds) Population Ageing, Health and Aged Care: Modelling our Future (Volume 2), North-Holland, Elsevier, December 2006 (in press).

Walker A, Thurecht L and Harding A, "Changes in hospitalisation rates and costs - New South Wales, 1996-97 and 2000-01", Australian Economic Review , Vol.39 No.4, 2006, pp.301-408.

Walker A, Pearse J, Thurecht L and Harding A, "Hospital admissions by socioeconomic status: does the 'Inverse Care Law' apply to older Australians?", Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, Vol.30 No.5, October 2006, pp.467-73.

Walker A and Becker N, "Health inequalities across socioeconomic groups: comparing geographic-area-based and individual-based indicators", Public Health , Vol.119 No.12, December 2005, pp.1057-1150

Walker A, "Economic and Health Impacts of Narrower Health Inequalities in Australia ", in J Yfantopoulos (ed), The Economics of Health Reforms , Atiner, Athens , 2005, pp.263-82.

Walker A, Percival R, Thurecht L and Pearse J, "Distributional impact of recent changes in private health insurance policies", Australian Health Review , Vol.29 No.2, May 2005, pp.167-77.

Thurecht L, Walker A, Harding A and Pearse J, "The 'Inverse Care Law', population ageing and the hospital system: a distributional analysis", Economic Papers , Vol.24 No.1, March 2005, pp.1-17.

Walker A, "Multiple chronic conditions: patient characteristics and impacts on quality of life and health expenditures", Health Services & Policy Research Conference , Canberra , 13-16 November 2005.

Walker A, "Modelling the links between socioeconomic status and health in Australia : a dynamic microsimulation approach" , unpublished PhD Thesis, Australian National University , 2005. ( available here ).

Walker A, " Impact of Health on the Ability of Older Australians to Stay in the Workforce - with Possible Contributions to Economic Sustainability ", in Carlson E (ed.) A Future that Works - Economics, Employment and the Environment , Proceedings of the 6th Path to Full Employment Conference and 11th National Conference on Unemployment, Centre of Full Employment and Equity, University of Newcastle , Newcastle, 2004.

Walker A, Bill A and Harding A, The Impact of Women's Leadership in Health and Welfare Development , World Health Organisation, Kobe Centre , Japan , 2003.

Abello A, Brown L, Walker A and Thurecht L, "An Economic Forecasting Microsimulation Model of the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme", National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, Technical Paper No.30, University of Canberra , November 2003.

Thurecht L, Bennett D, Gibbs A, Walker A, Pearse J and Harding A, "A Microsimulation Model of Hospital Patients: New South Wales ", National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, Technical Paper No.29, University of Canberra , May 2003.

Walker A, Colagiuri S and McLennan M, "Cost-Benefit Model of Diabetes Prevention and Care: Model Construction, Assumptions and Validation", National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, Technical Paper No.28, University of Canberra , May 2003.

Walker A, Kelly S, Harding A and Abello A, "Does Your Wealth Depend on Good Health?", National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, AMP-NATSEM Income and Wealth Report No.4, University of Canberra , April 2003.