Supplemental Readings

ECON 40565 Health Economics

Fall 2007

 

 

All files are in PDF format.  Note that some of the articles are scanned copies of book chapters or articles that are not available in electronic format.  As a result, the PDF files are very large.  In some cases, I've broken the files up into two smaller files to ease the download/printer burden.

 

 

I.          Course Overview

            What is health economics?

 

            Folland, Goodman and Stano, Chapter 1.

 

 

 

II.        The Production of Health

 

 

A.         The production of health -- An historical perspective

 

                        Folland, Goodman and Stano, Chapter 4.

 

McKeown, Thomas, The Role of Medicine: Dream, Mirage or Nemesis, 1979, pages 29-44, 91-114.[download part 1][download part 2]

 

            Fogel, Robert, The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, 1700-2100, 2005, 1-42. [download]

 

 

B.         Modern determinants of health 

 

Deaton, Angus, “Policy Implications of the Gradient on Health and Weath,” Health Affairs, March/April 2002, 13-30.[download]

 

            Marmot, Marmot, “TheInfluence of Income on Health: Views of an Epidemiologist”, Health Affairs, March/April 2002, 31-45. [download]

 

Smith, J., “Healthy Bodies and Thick Wallets: The Dual Relationship Between Health and Economic Status,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 13(2), Spring 1999, 145-66. [download]

 

            Redelmeier, Donald and S.M. Singh, "Survival in Academy Award-Winning Actors and Actresses," Archives of Internal Medicine, May 15, 2001, 134(10), 955-965. [download]

 

 

C.         The government control of unhealthy behavior

 

                        Folland, Goodman and Stano, Chapters 18 and 22.

 

                                    Gruber, J, "Tobacco at the Crossroads: The Past and Future of Smoking Regulation in the United States" Journal of Economic

                                    Perspectives, 15, 2001, 193-212.  [download]

           

                                    Manning, Willard, et al, The Costs of Poor Health Habits, 1991, pages 1-29.[download part 1][[download part 2]

 

 

D.        How economists think about problems: explaining the rise in obesity

 

            Cutler, David, Edward Glaeser and Jesse Shapiro, “Why Have Americans Become More Obese?”  Journal of Economic Perspective, 2003. [download]

           

                        Schanzenbach, D.W., "Do School Lunches Contribute to Childhood Obesity," University of Chicago,

                        Harris School Working Paper, 05.13.   

                        http://harrisschool.uchicago.edu/About/publications/working-papers/pdf/wp_05_13.pdf [download]

 

 

 

II.        Health Insurance and the Demand for Medical Care

 

 

A.         Choices Under Uncertainty -- An Introduction

 

                                    Folland, Goodman and Stano, Chapter 7

 

 

B.         Adverse Selection

 

Rothschild, Michael and Joseph Stiglitz, “Equilibrium in Competitive Insurance Markets: An Essay on the Economics of Imperfect Information,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 1976, 90(4): 629-650. [download]

 

            Cutler, David M., and Sarah J. Reber, “Paying for Health Insurance: The Tradeoff Between Competition and Adverse Selection,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 113(2), May 1998, pp. 433-466.[download]

 

Simon, Kosali, “Adverse Selection in Health Insurance Markets?  Evidence from State Small-Group Health Insurance Reforms,” Journal of Public Economics, 89, 2005, 1865-1877. [download]

 

 

C.         Moral Hazard

 

                                    Folland, Goodman and Stano, Chapter 8

 

                        Folland, Goodman and Stano, Chapter 7, pages 155-160.

 

                                    Newhouse, Joseph, Free for All, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993, p. 3-28, 31-49, 338-345. 

                                    ISBN 13: 978-0-674-31846-5  [download part 1][download part 2]

 

 

D.         Employer-provided health insurance

 

                        Folland, Goodman and Stano, Chapter 11

 

Reinhardt, Uwe, “Employer-Based Health Insurance: A Balance Sheet,” Health Affairs, 1999, 18(6), 124-132. [download]

 

Custer, William S., et al., “Why We Should Keep the Employer-Based Health Insurance System,” Health Affairs, November/December 1999. [download]

 

Summers, Lawrence, “Some Simple Economics of Mandated Benefits,” American Economic Review, May 1989, 177-183. [download]

 

Krueger, Alan, and Uwe Reinhart, “The Economics of Employer versus Individual Mandates,” Health Affairs, Spring (II) 1994, 34-53. [download]

 

                        Gruber, J., “The Incidence of Mandated Maternity Benefits,” American Economic Review, 84(3), 1994, 622.641.[download]

 

 

III.       The government provision of health insurance

 

 

A.         Medicare

 

Folland, Goodman and Stano, Chapter 20

 

McClellan, M., J Skinner, "The Incidence of Medicare," Journal of Public Economics, 90, 2006, 257-276.  [download]

 

            Bhattacharya, J. and D. Lakdawaalla, "Does Medicare benefit the poor?”  Journal of Public Economics, 90, 2006, 277-292. [download]

 

Moon, Marilyn, “Health Policy 2001: Medicare.” New England Journal of Medicine, 344(12), March 22, 2001, 928-931.[download]

 

 

B.         Medicaid

 

Rosenbaum, “Health Policy Report: Medicaid,” New England Journal of Medicine, 346(8), February 21, 2002, 635-639.[download]

 

            Cutler, D., J. Gruber, "Does Public Insurance Crowd Out Private Insurance," Quarterly Journal of Economics, 111, 1996, 391-430. [download]

 

 

 

IV.       The Agency Problem in Health Care

 

                        Folland, Goodman and Stano, Chapter 9.

 

Please check out the Dartmouth Atlas, http://www.dartmouthatlas.org/, which is a fascinating graphical presentation of small-area variation

 

Gruber, Jonathan and Maria Owings, “Physician Incentives and Cesarean Section Delivery,” RAND Journal of Economics, 27(1), Spring 1996, 99-123.[download]

 

 

 

V.         Managed Care

 

                        Folland, Goodman and Stano, Chapter 12

  

Miller, Robert and Harold Luft, “HMO Plan Performance Update: An Analysis of the 1997 - 2001 Literature,” Health Affairs, November/December 1999. [download]

 

                        Cutler, D., M. McClellan, J. Newhouse, “How does managed care do it?”  RAND Journal of Economics, 31(3), 2000, 526-48.  [Download]

 

VI.       R&D, Innovation and the Pharmaceutical Industry

 

A.         Innovation as a cost driver in health care

 

                        Newhouse, Joseph, “Medical Care Costs: How Much Welfare Loss?” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 6(3), 1992, 3-31.

                        [download]

 

                        Cutler, D., M. McClellan, “Is Technological Change in Medicine Worth it?  Health Affairs, 20(5), 2001, 11-29. [download]

 

 

B.         Pharmaceutical companies 

 

                        Folland, Goodman and Stano, Chapter 16.

 

                                    DiMasi, J.A., R.W. Hansen, H.G. Grabowski, “The Price of Innovationn:  New Estimates of Drug Development Costs, “

                                    Journal of Health Economics, 22, 2003, 151-185.  [download]

 

Reinhardt, Uwe, “Perspectives on the Pharmaceutical Industry,” Health Affairs, 2001, 20(5), 136-149.  [download]

 

            Kremer, Michael, "Pharmaceuticals and the Developing World," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 16(4). 2002, 67-90. [download]

 

 

 

VII.      Medical Malpractice

 

                        Melo, M.M., et al., “The New Malpractice Crisis,” New England Journal of Medicine, 348(23), June 5, 2003, 2281-2284. 

 

                        Thorpe, K.E., “The Medicial Malpractice ‘Crisis’:  Recent Trends and the Impact of State Laws,” Health Affairs Web Exclusive,

                         January 21 2004.