Economics of Health and Health Care

Objectives

Students should become aware of the special features of the healthcare sector. At the end of the course, students should be able to discuss the main policy issues in the healthcare sector and conduct economic analyses to study specific questions. 


General characterization

Code

2135

Credits

3.5

Responsible teacher

Pedro Pita Barros

Hours

Weekly - Available soon

Total - Available soon

Teaching language

English

Prerequisites

n/a

Bibliography

PP Barros, Economia da Saúde – Conceitos e Comportamentos, Livraria Almedina, 3ª Edition, 2013. (Selected chapters, Portuguese)
J Newhouse and A Culyer, editors, Handbook of Health Economics – Vol 1A, North- Holland, 2000. (Selected chapters, English)
J Newhouse and A Culyer, editors, Handbook of Health Economics – Vol 1B, North- Holland, 2000. (Selected chapters, English)
M Pauly, T McGuire and PP Barros, editors, Handbook of Health Economics – Vol 2, North- Holland, 2012. (Selected chapters, English)
PP Barros and X Martinez-Giralt, Health Economics – an industrial organization approach, Routledge, 2011. (English)
Folland, Goodman and Stano, The Economics of Health and Health Care, 5th edition, Pearson, 2007. (English)


Teaching method

Students should read proposed documents prior to the class in order to participate actively in the class discussion.

Students should solve the problem sets or write a term paper in order to apply the tools learned in class (see below).

 


Evaluation method

Final exam 50% (minimum grade for approval: 8) and one of the following: 3 problem sets 20% each, or Term paper (2 options) 60% 


Subject matter

1.    Introduction
2.    The value of life
3.    Economic evaluation
4.    Demand for health and healthcare
5.    Health insurance
6.    Imperfect information
7.    Supplier-induced demand
8.    Production of healthcare
9.    Payment systems
10.    Equity