Does medical insurance affect health care demand and in the end contribute to improvements in the health status? Evidence for China for the year 2004, by means of the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), shows that health insurance does not affect health care demand in a significant manner....

Physicians are supposed to serve patients' interests, but some are more inclined to do so than others. This paper studies how the system of health care provision affects the allocation of patients to physicians when physicians differ in altruism. We show that allowing for private provision of...

Alors que les prix pratiqués par les médecins de secteur 1 sont fixés et régulés, les médecins de secteur 2 ont la possibilité de pratiquer avec « tact et mesure » des dépassements d’honoraires pour les mêmes actes. Depuis le 1 er décembre 1989, l’accès au secteur 2 est...

En France, l’offre de soins ambulatoires est régulée depuis 1971 par le numerus clausus, qui fixe le nombre d’étudiants admis en deuxième année de médecine. Fixé initialement à 8 588 places, il n’a vraiment diminué qu’à partir de 1978, jusqu’à atteindre 3 500 places en 1993....

One of the reasons why regulators are hesitant about permitting price competition in healthcare markets is that it may damage quality when information is poor. Evidence on whether this fear is well-founded is scarce. We provide evidence using a reform that permitted Dutch health insurers and...

We examine the effect of publicly provided health care on welfare by combining local level data on public health care, and individual level data on life satisfaction. It is shown that relatively high expenditures in health care have a positive effect on individuals' life satisfaction in our...