About this Project

Economics of Skin is an open data platform mapping the economic burden of stigmatised skin conditions. It aggregates publicly available data on the economic impacts of these conditions across countries and demographic groups.

Focus conditions: Vitiligo, Psoriasis, Eczema (Atopic Dermatitis) and Albinism.

• Quantifies labour market discrimination, healthcare cost burden, productivity loss, and research funding gaps.
• Uses behavioural economics frameworks — signalling theory, prospect theory, bounded rationality, and the availability and representativeness heuristics — as the analytical lens for each disease profile.
• Presents a composite economic burden score (SEBI) per country, modelled from real indicators rather than estimates.
• Documents where data does not exist, rather than filling the gap with projections.

Only Psoriasis and Atopic Dermatitis have complete, calculable country-level data in this phase. Vitiligo and Albinism have no structured country-level economic data available and are treated throughout the site as a documented research gap.