Objectives

The objective of this course is to introduce students to economic analyses of health and healthcare. Students will learn how economic analysis can help understand the behaviors of different actors in health systems such as consumers, providers and insurers and resulting outcomes such as patterns of population health, healthcare use and cost and allocations in health insurance markets. Particular focus is thereby placed on the role of incentives, asymmetric information and other special attributes of health and healthcare markets and what these special attributes imply for health policy design and market regulation.

Contents

The course consists of both lectures and exercise sessions with analytical and comprehension exercises and will cover the following topics:

1. The meaning, measurement and valuation of “health”
2. Determinants of health and mortality and the socioeconomic status and health relationship
3. Healthcare spending and the price of technology
4. Economic modelling of the demand for health and healthcare: The Grossman model
5. Economic analysis of the demand for healthcare: The RAND Health Insurance Experiment
6. Healthcare supply: Incentives in healthcare provision and medical practice (variation)
7. Pharmaceuticals and the economics of innovation in healthcare
8. Health technology assessment and economic evaluation
9. Demand for health insurance and moral hazard
10. Health insurance and adverse selection
11. Health policy and health systems
12. Current topics in health economics (economic epidemiology and COVID-19, population aging, economics of obesity, etc. - time permitting)
    

References

Bhattacharya, J., Hyde, T. and Tu, P., 2013. Health economics. Macmillan International Higher Education.

Pre-requisites

Basic knowledge in microeconomics and statistics/econometrics is an advantage.

Evaluation

First attempt

Exam:

Written 2h00 hours

Documentation:

Not allowed

Calculator:

Not allowed

Evaluation:

The course will be evaluated based on a written exam.

Retake

Exam:

Written 2h00 hours

Documentation:

Not allowed

Calculator:

Not allowed

Evaluation:

The course will be evaluated based on a written exam.