Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Sometimes, a coefficient isn’t what it seems to be. When using an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, the regression coefficients indicate the proportion by which the dependent variable changes when the independent variables increases by one unit. Regression coefficients are more difficult to interpret, however, for more complicated regression specifications such as probit, mutlinomial logit,…
“In 1988, the first year for which data are available, there were fewer than 14,000 patients waiting for a kidney transplant and about 7,000 deceased-donor kidneys. Today, the waiting list has grown more than fivefold — an increase fueled partly by higher rates of diabetes — but the number of deceased-donor kidneys has only inched…
Many health economists wonder how much individuals would be willing to pay for a treatment. Since most medical care is paid by third parties (i.e. private insurance companies or the government) we can not use revealed preference econometrics which has been used in other areas of economics. Instead, many economists ask individuals directly these valuation…
According to optimal tax theory, taxes should be highest on relatively inelastic activities. For instance, most men work full-time and and the tax rate does not affect this. On the other hand, it has been should that the labor supply of women is much more sensitive to wages and income tax rates. If we follow…
Health economists, policy makers, physicians and public health officials all want to maximize the well-being of society. These groups evaluate different medical treatments or public health interventions and then determine if the benefit is worth the cost. In an opinion piece by Dorte Gyrd-Hansen in Pharmacoeconomics (2005), two schools of thought are examined. Those who…
Hybrid cars are supposed to save the environment, but they will also increase traffic. How can this be? Example 1 Let us suppose that Hybrid Harry has a hybrid car which gets 50 mpg. Gas-guzzler Gary has a truck which gets 20 mpg. Both Harry and Gary live in San Diego and have relatives in…
Typically, economists when economists look at the health insurance market, they focus on the insurance side of it. By this I mean to define insurance as the purchase of a product which will reimburse the buyer in the case of an adverse event. However, one must also look at the concept of protection. Protection is…
What happens when your the government is run by those tax-and-spend, dovish, universal health care loving, welfare promoting big government Democrats? Is there a difference when the low tax, hawkish, drug company pawns, anti-equality, small government Republicans take over? Few would question that there are significant ideological differences between the two parties and that federal…
Who has the best Economics blog of 2008? The Bayesian Heresy makes their selections. Topping the list is the UCSD professor Jim Hamilton’s Econbrowser blog. In 2006, the Bayesian Heresy named the Healthcare Economist as the #2 Specialized Economics blog.
Barack Obama wins Iowa and is predicted to win New Hampshire according to Gallup polls. Then Hillary Clinton wins New Hampshire. Why were Gallup poll predictions wrong? The Statistical Modeling blog tries to make sense of this in their post “What was going on with the New Hampshire polls?” The post gives three reasons why…