1 Spring 2015 Tulane University Department of Economics Economics 4500/6500: Health Economics and Policy Monday, Wednesday and Friday 1:00-1:50 PM. Room: F. Edward Hebert Hall 210 (Updated on Jan. 13, 2015) Instructor: Dr. Nina Yin Telephone: 504-314-7352 Email: nyin@tulane.edu Office: 302 Richardson Building Office Hours: Wednesday 2:00-4:00 pm, or by appointment 1. Textbook: Health Economics by Charles E. Phelps, 5th edition. Prentice Hall. 2012. Supplemental Reading: Handbook of Health Economics edited by Anthony Culyer and Joseph P. Newhouse. Vol. 1. 2000. 2. Course Outline: Introduction (Class 1-2) Utility of Health and Health Production (Class 3-5) Demand for Health Care (Class 6-7) Debate Tournaments I (Class 8) Supply for Health Care (Class 9-22) Mid-term Exam I (Class 14) Debate Tournaments II (Class 20) Demand for Health Insurance (Class 23-25) Supply for Health Insurance (Class 26-31) Mid-term Exam II (Class 27) Debate Tournaments III (Class 33) Externalities of Health and Medical Care (Class 32-34) Managing the Market (Class 35-36) International Comparisons of Health Care Systems (Class 37-39) Review (Class 40)
2 3. Course Description and Objectives: This course provides a comprehensive overview of topics related to health care markets and health care policies, particularly the U.S. health economics. The key features of the health care providers, payers and manufacturers are discussed. The costeffectiveness and cost-benefit analyses are introduced. The purpose of the course is to practice your skills in microeconomics and empirical analysis. It will enhance your understanding about how economic analytic skills are used in addressing important health policy issues. The concepts and debates discussed in the course has many public policy implications. You will see the range of important public policy issues that health economics encompasses. I hope that the material covered here will benefit you for the future lives, no matter as a consumer who utilizes health care services, or working in a health-related profession. For students planning to pursue careers in medicine, public health, and law or business related to health care, this course offers substantial economic frameworks and institutional backgrounds about health care policies. The course also aims to improve students speaking and presenting skills. 4. Program Outcomes: This course contributes to the program outcomes for the BA and BS degrees in Economics by allowing students to demonstrate competency in the specialized area of health economics. It also contributes to the program outcomes for the MA degree in Economics by allowing MA students to integrate economic analysis and quantitative methods in application to the specialized area of health economics. 5. Learning Outcomes: After the course, students will gain the ability to Acknowledge the characteristics of health care markets and understand the differences between health care products/markets and other products/markets. Discuss ways in which health care markets violate the assumptions underlying the effiency of markets. Explain moral hazard and adverse selection, and identify situations in which these phenomena are likely to cause problems with health care markets. Analyze the strategic behaviors of payers, providers and manufacturers, with the acknowledgement of their objectives and constraints. Identify the major policy issues underlying health care markets and potential solutions to problems in health care markets. 6. Prerequisites: ECON 3010 7. Required Readings: There are two types of required readings. The first is Health Economics by Charles E. Phelps. We will cover major part of the book. The second of reading consists of Chapters of Handbook of Health Economics(Vol.1, 2000). 8. Honor Code and Course Policies: All students are responsible for knowing and adhering to Tulane University s Honor Code, available at http://tulane.edu/college/code.cfm. Failure to
3 acknowledge assistance on an assignment, or to cite a source of information used in an assignment, or to represent the work of others as your own, or to cheat in examination, constitutes a violation of the University s honor code. Any violations may result in failure of the assisgnment or the course, or expulsion from the University. Any exam missed for a non-legitimate reason will be accorded the grade of 0. 9. Exams and Grading Mid-term exam I Mid-term exam II Final exam Debate Tournaments Feb. 13th. Mar. 18th. TBA within May 1st-9th. Jan. 30th, March 4th, April 10th To relieve your burden in preparing for the final exam, the final will focus on material covered since the mid term. The grades will be determined as weighted averages of exams, and testimony: Class participation 10% Midterm examination I 20% Midterm examination II 20% Debate Tournaments 20% Final Examination 30% (20% for Graduates) Research Proposal(Graduates Only) 10% Students are expected to read assigned materials, participate in and lead class discussions, participate in group work, and successfully complete two midterm and one final exams. The midterms will be given in-class and will be closed-book on the date listed in the syllabus. The final exam will be conducted during the exam period at the end of semester. They will emphasize applying the concepts and analytic approaches developed in the course. The purpose of debate tournaments is to encourage you to collaborate with others and practice your speaking and presenting skills, as well as become familiar with the institutional backgrounds and policy issues in health care area. 10. Research Proposal: Additional requirements for graduate students: You are required to submit a research proposal. In the research proposal, you are encouraged to investigate any interesting topics in health policy and health economics area. The issues important for the real world are highly appreciated. You could collect data by yourself or adopt the available publicly available datasets. If you are not familiar with the datasources, please feel free to talk with me. The purpose of the research proposal is to encourage you to get the flavor of conducting an empirical study in health economics. Please feel free to talk with me about the questions and difficulties you have during your research process. Don t wait until the last second. Due dates: 1. Feb 1st. 2-3 pages: preliminary proposal for research projects: literature review, ideas and motivation;
4 2. March 1st. 5-10 pages: extend the previous version by including the empirical model, data source description, variables used in the analysis; 3. April 15th. 10-15 pages(final Version): with descriptive analysis of the data, the preliminary results from the regression, discussion and future direction. The contents of the proposal: Motivation: What s the research questions? Literature Review: What s the existing related studies about? What s their findings? Describe the dataset you are going to use? Explain the explanatory variables and dependent variable, and their definitions. Estimation methods, estimation equations? Identification strategy. Preliminary results. 11. Schedule and Course Readings: I Introduction and Course Overview Jan. 12th, Jan. 14th Text: Chapter 1 Readings: Handbook Introduction. II Utility and Health Jan. 16th Text: Chapter 2 Readings: Handbook Chapter 3. III The Transformation of Medical Care to Health Jan. 21th, Jan. 23th Text: Chapter 3 Readings: Handbook Chapter 4. IV The Demand for Medical Care: Conceptual Framework January 26th, 28th Text: Chapter 4 Readings: Handbook Chapter 7. Debate Tournament I Jan. 30th
5 V The Physician and the Physician-Firm Feb 2nd, 4th Text: Chapter 6 Readings: Handbook Chapter 22. VI Physicians in the Marketplace Feb. 6th, 9th, 11th Text: Chapter 7 Readings: Handbook Chapter 9. Midterm Exam I Feb. 13th VII The Hospital as a Supplier of Medical Care Feb. 18th, 20th Text: Chapter 8 Readings: Handbook Chapter 20. VIII Hospitals in the Marketplace Feb., 23th, 25th. Text: Chapter 9 Readings: Handbook Chapter 21. IX Pharmaceutical Industry and Innovation Feb. 27th, Mar. 2nd, 6th Text: Readings: Handbook Chapter 25. Debate Tournament II Mar. 4th X The Demand for Health Insurance Mar. 9th, 11th, 13th Text: Chapter 10 Readings: Handbook Chapter 11. XI Health Insurance Supply and Managed Care Mar. 16th, 20th, 23th Text: Chapter 11 Readings: Handbook Chapter 13. Midterm Exam II March 18th
6 XII Government Provision of Health Insurance Mar. 25th, 27th Text: Chapter 12 Readings: Handbook Chapter 15. XIII Externalities in Health and Medical Care Apr. 8th, 13th Text: Chapter 14 Readings: Handbook Chapter 31. Debate Tournament III Apr. 10th XIV XV Managing the Market: Regulation, Quality Certification, and Technical Change Apr. 15th, 17th Text: Chapter 15 Readings: Handbook Chapter 27. Universal Insurance Issues and International Comparisons of Health Care Systems Apr. 20th, 22th, 24th Text: Chapter 16 Readings: Handbook Chapter 1. Review Apr. 27th Final Exam TBA Note: All the reading materials have been put onto the blackboard and they are used only in classroom. Please do not post or circulate them without permission from the copyrights owners. Important Dates: Research Proposal version 1(Graduates Only).............. Feb. 1st Mid Term Exam I......................................... Feb. 13th Research Proposal version 2(Graduates Only).............. Mar. 1st Mid Term Exam II........................................Mar. 18th Research Proposal Final(Graduates Only)................ Apr. 15th Final Exam....................................................TBA Debate Tournaments.............. Jan. 30th, March 4th, April 10th
7 12. Debate Tournaments: The Debate Tournaments will be scheduled for 30-40 minutes of that class. Rules of Debate Tournaments (TBA) Schedule of Debate Tournaments(TBA)