MEDFL5285 – The Economics of Hospitals: Competition, Price Incentives, Non-profit status and Waiting Times
Course description
Course content
The course will give an overview of the vast empirical literature investigating the determinants of hospital behaviour with a particular focus on quality and empirical methods.
The course is relevant for PhD candidates who draw on quantitiative methods in their research.
The course will focus on three main policy leavers: competition and choice policy; price incentives through a DRG-type of system; profit versus non-profit status. The module will also explore the role of waiting time in the provision of hospital services.
Each topic will be introduced by a theoretical framework following by a detailed analysis of empirical (econometric) methods and key empirical results. Empirical models will cover cross-sectional, panel-data models, instrumental variables approach, and natural experiments.
Learning outcome
When the course has been completed the student should be able to:
Knowledge
- describe how hospitals respond to economic incentives
- explain different policy levers to influence hospital behaviour
- describe different methods to test specific assumptions about hospital behaviour, and to characterise their strengths and weaknesses
Skills
- critically appraise empirical studies on hospital behaviour
- design an empirical study on hospital behaviour
- identify appropriate statistical/econometric method to investigate hospital data
- analyse hospital data
- discuss how competition and choice policies might affect hospital quality and waiting times
General competence
- critically evaluate studies using hospital data
- critically assess empirical analyses in relation to posed policy-relevant research question
- raise critical questions to your own Research
- reflect on the general ideas on how to test specific assumptions on hospital behavior
Admission
The course is restricted to students at the Medical Student Research Programme at the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Dentistry, UiO.
Students apply in StudentWeb
The courses MEDFL5280 and HES9285 have common admission
Prerequisites
Recommended previous knowledge
Some knowledge of econometrics would be helpful.
Overlapping courses
5 credits overlap with HES9285 – The Economics of Hospitals: Competition, Price Incentives, Non-profit status and Waiting Times (discontinued)
Teaching
One week (Monday to Friday) every second year (spring semester).
Lecture: 9.00 am - 11.30 am
Student presentations: 1.00 pm - 2.30 pm
Question and answer session and open discussion: 3 pm - 4 pm
Notes:
Student presentations will cover i) a paper from the reading list; ii) a thesis chapter.
Question and answer session will be such that Luigi will first ask some questions in related to material covered, answer questions from the students, and from the second day cover answers of the problem set given to students at the end of each day (on which students can work from 4pm onwards for about an hour which has to be submitted in the following morning).
You have to participate in at least 80 % of the teaching to be allowed to take the exam. Attendance will be registered.
Examination
Assessment: After the course, students will submit a short essay answering a question from a short list.
Language of examination
The examination text is given in English, and you submit your response in English.
Grading scale
Grades are awarded on a pass/fail scale. Read more about the grading system.
Explanations and appeals
Resit an examination
Special examination arrangements
Application form, deadline and requirements for special examination arrangements.
Evaluation
The course is subject to continuous evaluation. At regular intervals we also ask students to participate in a more comprehensive evaluation.