Healthcare Markets and Regulation

This course analyzes the economics of health care markets and the way regulations impact those markets. We will study the unique institutional arrangements found in the health care sector (primarily, though not exclusively, in the United States) and examine how market forces manifest themselves in this setting. We will consider the behavior of health care providers, insurers’ roles both as intermediaries and risk managers, patients’ health care demand, and geographic differences in medicine. The study of government regulations, including their theoretical and empirical impacts on health care markets, will be integrated throughout these topics.