ADEC 7380 Empirical Health Economics

At its root, the study of health economics is the study of market failure and of government failure. We will begin the course by studying the ways in which incentives facing players in the health care industry are different from those present in other industries. We will use economics to explore how firms in the health care sector should behave, given the sometimes perverse incentives they face. As the course progresses, our emphasis will shift: in small groups, students will complete and present a data-driven (or empirical) project investigating a question relevant to healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, and/or government regulators. Skills developed in this class will allow students to think critically about incentives present in health care settings, analyze various types of health care data, and present ways to improve the performance of different players in the health care industry.