We study whether the information patients have about physician quality when they choose a physician, influences their probability of switching physicians. We also study whether a physician with unfavorable characteristics, as perceived by patients (ex post), can compensate for patient switching...

On the basis of a randomized controlled trial we estimate the cost per life-year gained for six different strategies for colorectal cancer screening. Individuals in the age group 50 to 64 years were randomly selected for either flexible sigmoidoscopy or a combination of flexible sigmoidoscopy...

Screening for genetic diseases is performed in many regions and/or ethnic groups where there is a high prevalence of possibly malign genes. The propagation of such genes can be considered dynamic externality. Given that many of these diseases are untreatable and give rise to truly tragic...

The impact of quality on the demand facing health care providers has important implications for the industrial organization of health care markets. In this paper we study the consumers' choice of general practitioner (GP) assuming they are unable to observe the true quality of GP services. A...

In this paper we study the demand and supply of erythropoietin in four Nordic countries, using an econometric model based on discrete choice and a random utility model. It measures the effect of price changes as well as the loyalty of patients and physicians to a drug. Our main aims are to...

Objectives: Chlamydia is the most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection worldwide and a major cause of morbidity – particularly among women and neonates. We compared costs and health consequences of using point-of-care (POC) tests with current syndromic management among antenatal...

In Norway specialized health services are provided both by public hospitals and by privately practicing specialists who have a contract with the public sector. Patients’ co-payment is the same irrespective of the type of provider they visit. The ambition of equity in the allocation of medical...

In health economics, cost-effectiveness is defined as maximized health benefits for a given health budget. When there is a private alternative to public treatments, care must be taken when using costeffectiveness analysis to decide what types of treatments should be included in the public...

Individuals often respond with strong emotions to being penalised. Such responses suggest that informal penalties are important and play a role in creating deterrence. In this paper informal penalties are analysed in the context of medical errors. The introduction of informal penalties, if...

Throughout history, epidemics have been a recurring terror to humanity. In vulnerable societies prior to the development of modern medicine an epidemic could wipe out 50-60% of a population. With the possible exception of AIDS, modern epidemics are less devastating to affected communities, but...