PAM 6410 - Health Economics I

(crosslisted)
(also ECON 6410)

Fall. 3 credits.

Prerequisite: Ph.D.-level courses in microeconomic theory and econometrics. First course in Ph.D.-level health economics sequence.

J. Cawley.

Comprehensive course covering microeconomic theory and its application to health and health care markets. Topics include consumer decision making, the theory of the firm, welfare economics, monopolies and oligopolies, and market imperfections. Applications in health economics include the demand for health, rational addiction, the industrial organization of health care, cost-effectiveness analysis, price discrimination by health care providers, how consumers respond to information about health care, adverse selection in health insurance, and the moral hazard created by physician compensation strategies. Each student writes a research paper, testing predictions from microeconomic theory by acquiring suitable data and estimating the appropriate econometric model, and presents his or her findings in a research seminar.