This course proposes a balanced approach of health economics based on both theoretical and empirical considerations. It deals with the study of the main stakeholders’ economic behaviours of the health sector: patients, health professionals (physicians and hospitals), health insurance, companies producing health goods or pharmaceuticals and health authorities. It invites to reconsider some of the basic concepts in economics (supply and demand, public intervention, uncertainty, information asymmetries, incentives, etc.) and models (growth models and human capital, labour supply, etc.), for a deep understanding of the phenomena at work in the sector. Thus, the course is likely to meet the expectations from students willing to specialise in the analysis of the health sector as well as students interested in illustrations of concepts and mechanisms derived from the economic theory.
Course outline:
General introduction (2h-BV)
Part 1. Micro foundations (8h)
Chap 1 The demand for health and healthcare (4h-BV)
• Introducing health in the utility function and deriving healthcare demand: presentation of several options
• The demand for healthcare using the concept of health-capital (Grossman, 1972)
• Empirical illustration
Chap 2 Health supply (4h-AP)
• Self-employed physicians
• Modelling Quality
• Payment schemes
• Empirical illustration
Part 2. Health macroeconomics (8h)
Chap 3 Health as an economic sector (5h-AP)
• Health sector contribution to GDP and growth in France and other OECD countries
• The irresistible growth of the health sector in the economy (health as a luxury or a necessity good?)
• Innovation in the health sector
• Empirical illustration
Chap 4 Health, development and growth (3h-BV)
• A health-augmented Solow-model
• Health and the development process, the Sachs report & the econometrics of the health/growth relationship
• The burden of diseases in Africa and the notion of “Universal Health Coverage”
• Modelling health in an macroeconomic design: epidemic traps
• Empirical illustration
Part 3. Topics (6h)
Chap 5 Public regulations in the healthcare market
• Measuring and reducing social inequalities in health (3h-BV)
Empirical illustrations
• Information asymmetries in health insurance (3h-AP)
Adverse selection in insurance companies’ plans
Moral hazard and healthcare consumption