Empirical Health Economics

This course introduces students to:

• Relevant policy questions in Health Economics
• The main empirical methods used for policy evaluation
• Some influential papers from the literature

Course structure

• US and German health care systems 
• Policy evaluation in health economics - Rubin's causal model
• Demand for health care – randomized controlled trials
• Demand for health care – instrumental variables 
• Demand for insurance - difference in differences 
• Health and socio-economic status 
• Health provider behavior

Learning objectives:

At the end of the course students should ...

• Have an overview of relevant policies in Health Economics
• Know economic and econometric models relevant to study these policies
• Be able to apply these models also to situations outside of the health-care sector
• Know how economic models can be tested empirically
• Be able to interpret and critically assess the methods and results of empirical studies
• Have gained institutional knowledge with respect to different health care systems

Lecture and tutorials

The lecture and the bi-weekly tutorial will take place offline.

Lecture and tutorials will be tought in English.

Presentations
There will be student presentations about every second week. Students will present the contents of current research papers from the area Health Economics. Presentations will be group presentations. 

• Angrist, Joshua D. & Pischke, Jörn-Steffen (2008): Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Bhattacharya, Jay; Hyde, Timothy & Tu, Peter (2014): Health Economics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Course documents (slides, data, solutiones) can be accesses online in OpenOLAT. 

The evaluation consists of a presentation (potentially in groups, depending on the number of participants) and a final exam.

Class participation and presentation

* Students will be asked to give an individual presentation about recent journal articles from the area of Health Economics. The presentations will be followed by a group discussion.
* The deadline for the presentation will be determined by the lecturer and communicated in the first weeks of the semester.

Final exam

The final exam is a written exam with open questions.

If the presentation is graded at least with a grade 2 ("gut"), then the exam grade can be improved by 0.3/ 0.4 grade points. If the presentation is graded at least with a grade 1 ("sehr gut"), then the exam grade can be improved by 0.6/ 0.7 grades. This grade increase is only possible if the student achieves at least a passing grade (4.0 or better). The possibility of improving the grade exists for both exams in the winter semester 2023/ 24.