This guide aims to support students taking the Health Economics (ECON 215) course.
It is maintained by Melody Chin.
Health economics is a rapidly growing field of applied economics. This is an introductory course to the field of health economics. Economic concepts such as scarcity, incentives, marginal analysis, dead-weight loss, profit-maximization and cost-minimization will be used throughout this course. It first begins with demand-and-supply analysis of health and medical care and production of health. It then discusses the importance of asymmetric information (adverse selection, moral hazard) in insurance markets. Other topics covered include behaviors of key players (physicians, hospitals, pharmaceuticals) in the health care sector, the role of government in the provision of health care, and issues in health care system reform. Finally, this course discusses health policy debates in developing countries.