Despite its success, Medicare Part D has been widely criticized for the gap in coverage, the so-called “doughnut hole”. We compare the use of prescription drugs among beneficiaries subject to the coverage gap with usage among beneficiaries who are not exposed to it. We find that the coverage...

This paper attempts to quantify the social, private, and public-finance values of reducing obesity through pharmaceutical and medical interventions. We find that the total social value of bariatric surgery is large for treated patients, with incremental social cost-effectiveness ratios typically...

For decades, the US public and private sectors have committed substantial resources towards cancer research, but the societal payoff has not been well-understood. We quantify the value of recent gains in cancer survival, and analyze the distribution of value among various stakeholders. Between...