In this article we focus on the issue of free care. Current literature suggests free care is associated with an extreme form of medical altruism. The sensitivity of the practitioner to a particular type of patient originates the price discrimination. Our econometric analysis tests another...

Health economics appears to have difficulty in taking medical ethics into consideration because of the standard figure of homo economicus. In main stream economics, the ethical attitude of a physician is then formalized in terms of “medical altruism”. This paper seeks to highlight the...

One of the most influential “lessons” of the moral hazard theory in health economics is that cost sharing can reduce health spending without damage on health status. This “lesson” has been enormously influential on policy makers. This paper shows that this theoretical and empirical...

Health economics often portrays medical ethics as a source of resistance to cost cutting measures within the health system. This paper challenges the opposition by showing that medical ethics is influenced by a welfare state that is in the process of constructing a market in health provision. In...

This text proposes to address the issue of the arbitrariness of decision-making, by using the concept of convention. We use the analytical framework of the (French) Conventions economics to define convention as an “interpretation scheme” We show the role of the representations, in the...

The concept of need plays an essential role in defining legitimate health inequalities. The debate on equity in healthcare policy has so far evolved independently of the philosophical discussions of need. This article draws on moral and political philosophy in order to develop a conception of...

The economic literature attaches great importance to the analysis of "professional motivations", in particular examining the possible crowding-out effects between extrinsic and intrinsic motivations. This article applies these questions to the healthcare professions with a view to providing a...