This paper investigates the determinants of the prices of branded prescription medicines across different regulatory settings and health care systems, taking into account their launch date, patent status, market dynamics and the regulatory context in which they diffuse. By using volume-weighted...

The size of national health care expenditure is an important research and policy issue. This paper reviews theoretical and empirical analyses of an implied optimal size for a health sector. Various economic theories are explicitly or implicitly invoked, but none is fully satisfactory. Theory...

The objective of this study was to evaluate economically a screening programme within the Oxford Regional Health Authority for Down's syndrome, based on maternal serum {alpha} fetoprotein, unconjugated oestriol and human chorionic gonadotrophin as well as maternal age (the triple test) against...

Aim: To assess the impact of early intervention (EI) services on service costs for people with first-episode psychosis. Methods: A decision model was constructed to map the care pathways following input from EI services and from standard care. A Markov process was used to run the model over 18...

Objectives To estimate the potential economic impact of pandemic influenza, associated behavioural responses, school closures, and vaccination on the United Kingdom. Design A computable general equilibrium model of the UK economy was specified for various combinations of mortality and morbidity...

The current study estimated the previous termcontribution of job characteristics to socioeconomic inequalitiesnext term in previous termincidence of myocardial infarctionnext term (MI) during a 12-year follow-up period. Data were from the working population (aged 25–64 years) in the...

Despite increased recognition of the importance of investigating socio-economic inequalities in health from a life course perspective, little is known about the influence of previous termchildhoodnext term socio-economic position (SEP) on previous termcancer incidence.next term The authors...

Contingent valuation (CV) has been widely used to measure the potential benefits derived from different policy decisions. However, doubt now exists about the validity of the CV method and alternative approaches to benefit valuation have been proposed. The paper reports on the results of a study...

Cancer incidence data for the Ontario Public Health Units in 1980-91 were examined to investigate regional patterns and the existence of outlier values after adjustment for known risk factors. Candidate risk factors were derived from the Ontario Health Survey and the census. Weighted regressions...

Improving prescription drug quality is an essential health policy goal in modern health systems, though evidence on the available instruments to attain such a goal are scarce. Cost sharing has an arguable role in improving the likelihood of an individual obtaining an appropriate prescription....