Markets require informed participants to function efficiently. This paper examines the impact of providing targeted information directly to patients on their purchasing-decisions regarding pharmaceutical drugs. We analyze the effect of informational letters sent by a Swiss health insurer to...

We analyze the medical decision-making process, first from the perspective of a patient and then from the perspective of a health care provider. Using a decision-tree, we describe the different actions a mother can take to treat her daughter, who she suspects has otitis media — an ear...

In the fight against antibiotic resistance, reducing antibiotic consumption while preserving healthcare quality presents a critical health policy challenge. We investigate the role of practice styles in patients' antibiotic intake using exogenous variation in patient-physician assignment....

This paper communicates results from a statistical investigation into questions of relationships between sources of health-care information, data sufficiency, and final outcomes of Vietnamese patients' choice of health-care provider. The study employs a data set of 1459 observations collected...

Health-maximizing and welfare-maximizing behaviors can be at odds, especially among disadvantaged groups, generating health disparities. We estimate a lifecycle model of medication and labor supply decisions using data on HIV-positive men. We evaluate an effective HIV treatment innovation that...

Why do low income patients tend to go to lower quality health care providers, even when they are free? We show that differential information about provider quality is an important determinant of this disparity. Our empirical strategy exploits the temporary presence of a website that publicly...