Health Economics

Research in Health Economics has developed into a separate discipline for the last 25 years. All this intense research activity, has translated in the inclusion of courses of health economics, mostly at graduate level. However, the Industrial Organization aspects of the health care market do not occupy a central place in those courses. We propose a textbook of health economics whose distinguishing feature is the analysis of the health care market from an Industrial Organization perspective. This textbook will provide teachers and students with a reference to study the market structure aspects of the health care sector. The book is structured in three parts. The first part will present the basic principles of economics. It will bring all readers to the required level of knowledge to follow subsequent parts. Part II will review the main concepts of health economics. The third part will contain the core of the book. It will present the industrial organization analysis of the health care market, based on our own research.

Xavier Martinez-Giralt is Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics and Economic History at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. Pedro Luis de Oliveira Martins Pita Barros is Professor of Economics, at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal.

Preface Part I: Principles of Economics 1. Introduction 2. Demand 3. Supply 4. Markets 5. Regulation 6. Mergers and Acquisitions 7. For-profit and Nonprofit Organizations Part II: Health Care 8. Essential Concepts in Health Economics 9. Demand for Health and Health Care 10. Insurance 11. Contracts and Asymmetric Information Part III: IO in Health Care 12. Competition in Health Care Markets 13. Public and Private Provision 14. Bargaining 15. Waiting Lists 16. Referrals, Gatekeeping and Levels of Care 17. Pharmaceutical Market