Researchers Olivier Jacques, assistant professor at the University of Montreal and CIRANO researcher, and Alain Noël, professor at the University of Montreal, have developed a theory of health spending priorities contrasting preventive care with curative care.

Public health investments help to prevent mortality and reduce health care costs. Yet very few studies have examined the determinants of preventive care investments across countries and over time. Preventive care is unlikely to be prioritized by governments since it is a public good that requires the allocation of scarce resources in the present to generate diffuse benefits that unfold only in the long-term.