70128 - Fundamentals in Health Economics

Learning outcomes

The course should enable students to analyse, according to the methods of microeconomics, the typical resource allocation problems involving health and healthcare. Teaching practice will combine theory and institutional analysis with updated empirical evidence from the literature and case-studies developed by the teacher.

At the end of the course, participants shall demonstrate knowledge about:

1) the peculiar economic characteristics of health and health care,

2) the fundamental trade-offs afflicting resource allocation in health and healthcare,

3) the way different Health Systems address these fundamental trade-offs.

Course contents

The economic relevance of health and health care

The production, cost and technology of healthcare

The demand for health and health care: health capital, education&health, risky behaviors.

Healthcare insurance: the demand and supply of insurance, moral hazard and adverse selection, limits of healthcare insurance markets & role of the State

Physician agency: models of physician behavior, SID, supply response to price, malpractice&defensive medicine.

Reimbursing and paying healthcare providers

Readings/Bibliography

Textbook

Folland S, Goodman AC and Stano M. 2012. "The Economics and Health and Health Care", 7th Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

McPake, Kumaranayake and Normand, 2001, Health Economics: An International Perspective, Routledge.

Additional readings:

Rice and Unruh, 2009, The Economics of Health Reconsidered, Health Administration Press, Chicago.

Further selected readings will be given during the course from: Journal of Health Economics, Journal of Economic Literature, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Health Affairs

Teaching methods

Teaching will be provided by the lecturer. Time is also allocated for group discussion and individual exercises

Assessment methods

A) written exam (90 minutes) + B) student presentation (20 minutes) of an assigned reading.

The final grade weights A and B according to 70% and 30% respectively.

Links to further information

http://www2.dse.unibo.it/dfabbri/dfabbri_1.htm

Office hours

See the website of Daniele Fabbri