Contributing to the project, The Economics of Social Determinants of health Addressing sociAl

determinAnts of heAlth through intersectorAl Actions: five public policy cAses from mexico The Series: The Discussion Paper Series on Social Determinants of Health provides a forum for sharing knowledge on how to tackle the social determinants of health to improve health equity. Papers explore themes related to questions of strategy, governance, tools, and capacity building. They aim to review country experiences with an eye to understanding practice, innovations, and encouraging frank debate on the connections between health and the broader policy environment. Papers are all peer-reviewed. Background: The strong causal links between public policies and the social gradient in health were documented in the World Health Organization (WHO) Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) report. Yet even when health and health equity are seen as important markers of development, expressing benefits of social determinants of health (SDH) interventions in health and health equity terms alone is not always sufficiently persuasive in policy settings where health i