Federal purchases of major childhood vaccines account for roughly half of the total market for these vaccines. This paper examines Federal purchasing practices in the context of the recent literature on bidding and procurement, and compares these practices to UNICEF vaccine procurement...

This paper estimates a quasi-structural birthweight production function using data on counties for the years 1975-1984. The analysis focuses on the effects of first trimester initiation of prenatal care, controlling for use of abortion services, cigarette smoking, birth order and income. Fixed...

Empirical studies suggest that entry of generic competitors results in minimal decreases or even increases in brand-name drug prices as well as sharp declines in brand-name advertising. This paper examines circumstances under which this empirical pattern could be observed. The analysis focuses...

This study examines the relative impacts of human capital and market conditions on the economic rents associated with hospital privileges in the market for footcare. An empirical model of hospital privileges for podiatrists is formulated based on the Pauly-Redisch model of hospital behavior. The...

This paper specifies and estimates an econometric model of low and very low birthweight rates for counties in the U.S. for the years 1975-1984. We focus on the impact of several specific public policy actions on use of prenatal care and the subsequent effect on birthweight outcomes. Our results...

During the 1980s the share of prescriptions sold by retail pharmacies that was accounted for by generic products roughly doubled. The price response to generic entry of brand-name products has been a source of controversy. In this paper we estimate models of price responses to generic entry in...

The research presented here focuses on the impact of competitive forces on the provision of social or merit goods by non-profit hospitals. We specifically examine the behavior of altruistic non-profit hospitals in the supply of charity care. The effects of competitive pressures and past charity...