Given the cost of trade and availability of pharmaceuticals, the driving force for parallel trade is the price difference between the source (exporting) and the destination (importing) country. An increase in the price difference or in the availability of pharmaceuticals for parallel trade...

This thesis consists of a summary and four papers. The first two concerns health care and sickness absence, and the last two pharmaceutical costs and prices. <p> Paper [I] presents an economic federation model which resembles the situation in, for example, Sweden. In the model the state governments...</p>

The price effects of the Swedish pharmaceutical substitution reform are analyzed using data for a panel of all pharmaceutical product sold in Sweden in 1997—2007. The price reduction due to the reform was estimated to average 10% and was found to be significantly larger for brand name...

This paper reports on a study of the prescribing physician's influence on consumers' choice between medically equivalent pharmaceuticals. The study was performed using a dataset of 666,000 observations in which consumers were asked whether they were prepared to pay the price difference in order...

This paper analyses how market shares for brand name drugs are affected by generic competition. The analysis is based on micro data for twelve original drugs, wich are all subject to generic competition. For five of these drugs, we find that the price of the original relative to the average...

This paper analyzes the impact of uncertainty concerning product quality of generic drugs on the substitution behavior of prescribing physicians. It is shown that uncertainty about the generic drug quality gives the physician a value of waiting for more information before switching to the...

In this paper, the impact of increased consumer information on brand name and generic pharmaceutical prices is analyzed both theoretically and empirically. The theoretical results show that an increase in information is likely to reduce the price of brand name pharmaceuticals, while the results...

Physicians' decisions whether or not to veto generic substitution were analyzed using a sample of 350,000 pharmaceutical prescriptions. Point estimates show that - compared to county-employed physicians on salary - physicians working at private practices were 50-80% more likely to veto...

This paper analyses the factors that determine entry into the Swedish pharmaceuticals market. The analysis is based on panel data for 22 different substances covering the years 1972 to 1996. The results show that profit opportunities in a particular market have a positive impact on entry. In...

In the county of Västerbotten, Sweden, there are two health centres which (contrary to all other health centres in the region) have a strict responsibility over their pharmaceutical budget. The purpose of this paper is to examine if the prices and quantities of pharmaceuticals prescribed by...