HEALTH ECONOMICS

The course will:
• illustrate the theoretical fundamental concepts related to the economic analysis of the health care sector.
• provide students with the instruments to analyse the relationship between efficiency and equity in the health care sector;
• provide knowledge of functioning, organization and financing of different health care systems.

Especially, the course will consider the following nine specific topics:
1. Health and health care as determinants of welfare and economic growth
2. Characteristics of the health care sector and reasons of public intervention (with a special focus on voluntary health insurance issues)
3. Demand for health and health care: the Grossman model
4. The health care ‘market’: principal-agent issues in the patient-doctor relationship and health care demand management (cost-sharing and waiting times)
5. Supply of health care: performance, costs and funding of health care and hospital services
6. Expenditure, performance and sustainability of health care systems
7. Health Technology Assessment: measuring costs and outcomes of new biomedical technologies and pharmaceuticals
8. Cost-benefit analysis, Cost-Effectiveness Analysis, and Cost-Utility Analysis of health care programmes
9. Decision Making Analysis: modelling in economic evaluation.