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on Health Economics |
| By: | Gehl Sampath, Padmashree (United Nations University, Maastricht Economic and social Research and training centre on Innovation and Technology) |
| Abstract: | The impact of patent protection on biomedical innovation has been a controversial issue. Although a "medical anti-commons" has been predicted due to a proliferation of patents on upstream technologies, evidence to test these concerns is only now emerging. However, most industrial surveys that shed light on this issue are mainly from developed countries, making it very difficult to predict the impact of patenting on biomedical innovation in developing and least developed countries. This paper develops a framework of analysis for the impact of patent rights on biomedical innovation in "technology follower" developing countries. Based on the framework developed in the paper, empirical data collected in an industry-level survey of the Indian pharmaceutical industry between November 2004 and January 2005 is used to analyze the impact of patent rights as recognized under the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) on biomedical innovati on in technology followers. |
| Keywords: | intellectual property rights, trade agreements, TRIPS, biotechnology, pharmaceutical industry, patents, innovation |
| JEL: | O34 O31 L65 F13 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2006008&r=hea |
| By: | Mahlich, Jörg C. (Wirtschaftskammer Österreich); Roediger-Schluga, Thomas (ARC Systems Research) |
| Abstract: | During the past 20 years, the world pharmaceutical industry has experienced a dramatic increase in R&D intensity. We apply and extend a model developed by Grabowski and Vernon (2000) with a pooled data sample of the 15 publicly listed Japanese drug firms for the period 1987 to 1998. As in the reference paper, we find expected returns to be an important determinant of R&D spending in the Japanese drug industry, albeit considerably smaller than in the U.S., which is particularly obvious in the case of returns from newly introduced drugs. However, our results are sensitive to econometric model specification, in particular to controlling for serial correlation and to a dynamic specification of the baseline model. Likewise, estimates on financial constraints are sensitive to model specification, indicating that Japanese drug firms face small or no financial constraints. Our results are consistent with the general literature on R&D investment behaviour, yet raise some methodological questions with regard to the original study. |
| Keywords: | R&D, investment, panel data estimation, pharmaceuticals, Japan |
| JEL: | L65 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2006015&r=hea |
| By: | Imerman, Mark D.; Eathington, Liesl; Jintanakul, Kanlaya; Otto, Daniel |
| Abstract: | This report provides a spatial representation of hospital geography in Iowa and of the decisions of patients to patronize hospitals. It begins with a brief analysis of hospital proximity and hospital proximity’s relationship to population distributions and existing hospital capacity. This is followed with a discussion of hospital capacity as a proxy for the supply of hospital services and the construction of hospital service area gravity models based upon capacity. Patient patronage of hospitals is then presented as a proxy of demand for hospital services, and gravity models are estimated on the basis of patronage. Having defined proxies for both the supply of and demand for hospital services and estimated patronage areas with respect to both, the analysis then turns to an investigation of where patients actually go for health care services. A simple visual analysis is done by mapping patients’ locations of residence and coding residence points to identify hospitals actually visited. The next step is to informally evaluate the expectation that patients will patronize their local (within an estimated service area) or nearest (if they reside outside of any service area) hospital. This is done with respect to type of patient (inpatient or outpatient) and by type of diagnosis. This investigation is based on hospital proximity, size, and patronage rather than qualitative evaluations of healthcare adequacy. Evaluation of health care quality is beyond the expertise of the authors. The analysis is based on visual interpretations and simple groupings of mapped data rather than on geostatistical analysis. The results provide a preliminary evaluation of data sources that have not previously been examined in detail. These preliminary results may identify areas of interest for further study. Data was obtained through the 2002 Iowa Hospital Association Inpatient and Outpatient Databases, which provide information on actual patient patronage of Iowa hospitals. Patient patronage reveals individual decisions made in the context of current health care pricing, quality, and availability. |
| Keywords: | Healthcare, Hospital |
| JEL: | I0 I1 L8 |
| Date: | 2006–05–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12630&r=hea |
| By: | Badi H. Baltagi (Syracuse University and IZA Bonn); Ingo Geishecker (Free University of Berlin) |
| Abstract: | Alcohol consumption in Russia is legendary and has been reported to be the third leading cause of death in the former Soviet Union after heart disease and cancer. Are Russian alcohol consumers rational addicts? This paper uses eight rounds of a nationally representative Russian survey spanning the period 1994-2003 to estimate a rational addiction (RA) model for alcohol consumption. This is done in a panel data setting as well as on a wave by wave basis. The profile of the Russian drinker finds a huge difference between males and females and the model is estimated by gender. We do not find support for the RA model in Russia for women. For men, although we find that some implications of the RA model are satisfied, we fail to endorse the model empirically on grounds of implausible negative estimates of the discount rate. |
| Keywords: | panel data, liquor consumption, rational addiction |
| JEL: | C23 D12 I10 |
| Date: | 2006–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2134&r=hea |
| By: | Axel Börsch-Supan; Karsten Hank; Hendrik Jürges (Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging (MEA)) |
| Date: | 2005–05–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:xrs:meawpa:05075&r=hea |
| By: | Jérôme Adda; Francesca Cornaglia |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the effect of excise taxes and bans on smoking in public places on the exposure to tobacco smoke of non-smokers. We use a novel way of quantifying passive smoking: we use data on cotinine concentration- a metabolite of nicotine- measured in a large population of non-smokers over time. Exploiting state and time variation across US states, we reach two important conclusions. First, excise taxes have a significant effect on passive smoking. Second, smoking bans have on average no effects on non smokers. While bans in public transportation or in schools decrease the exposure of non smokers, bans in recreational public places can in fact perversely increase their exposure by displacing smokers to private places where they contaminate non smokers, and in particular young children. Bans affect socioeconomic groups differently: we find that smoking bans increase the exposure of poorer individuals, while it decreases the exposure of richer individuals, leading to widening health disparities. |
| Keywords: | Passive smoking, Taxes, Bans |
| JEL: | I1 H |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:dpaper:509&r=hea |
| By: | Aydogan Ulker |
| Abstract: | What does the around-the-clock economic activity mean for workers’ health? Despite the fact that non-standard work accounts for an increasing share of the job opportunities, relatively little is known about the potential consequences for health and the existing evidence is ambiguous. In this paper I examine the relationship between non-standard job schedules and workers’ physical and mental health outcomes using longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA). Specifically, the four health indicators considered are self-rated health and the SF-36 health indices for general health, mental health and physical functioning. In terms of direction of the effects, overall results generally suggest a negative relationship between non-standard work schedules and better health for both males and females. Regarding the statistical significance and magnitudes of the effects, however, we observe apparent differences between males and females. Among females, most of the coefficients in all models are statistically insignificant, which implies very small magnitudes in terms of the correlation between non-standard working hours and health. These results apply uniformly to all health measures investigated. Among males, on the other hand, the negative relationship is more noticeable for self-rated health, general health and physical functioning than for mental health. The pooled OLS and random effects coefficients are usually larger in magnitude and more significant than the fixed effects parameters. Nonetheless, even the more significant coefficients, fortunately, do not imply large effects in absolute terms. |
| Keywords: | Non-standard work, physical health, mental health |
| JEL: | J22 J28 J81 I10 I1 |
| Date: | 2006–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:dpaper:518&r=hea |