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

Aim of the course

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

Examination: Written examination (120 min.) with open questions. The examination language is English.

Coursework: yes
Type of coursework: presentation (potentially in groups, depending on the number of participants)
Bonus: yes, improvement of the passed exam grade by a max. 0.7

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.
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 2025/26.