Health Economics

PE: Lecture + tutorial | Master | 2+1 hours | 6 ECTS | S. Spika | engl. | ILIAS | ZEuS

Lecture and Tutorial

Wednesday, 13:30 - 15:00, room G421
Tuesday, 17:00 - 18:30, room G420; bi-weekly, starts 29.10.19

Timetable

Timetable

Course Description

In most industrialized countries, the share of GDP spent on the healthcare sector exceeds 10% and is further increasing. At the same time, the health-care sector is highly regulated and ethical arguments are often brought forward against considerations on cost-reducing effort - reasons enough to look at the healthcare market from an economist’s perspective.

In this course, we will analyze topics prominently discussed in the health care sector, mainly within the framework of microeconomics models. We will derive answers to questions such as: What are possible criteria for financing drug A but not drug B? Why should health insurance be compulsory? How does the optimal payment system for hospitals look like? Are rising health care expenditures a problem per se?

In addition to the theoretical considerations, empirical papers on selected topics will be discussed.

Prerequisites

• Microeconomics I (Bachelor level)
• Public Economics (Bachelor level)

Assessment

- Final Exam 

Literature

Textbook: Zweifel/Breyer/Kifmann, Health Economics, 2nd ed., Springer 2009