Class Schedule

Below is a preliminary course outline for this semester. For a more complete reading list each day as well as more detail on course policies, please see the full syllabus here. I’ll post links to paper presentations as they are available.

Module 0: Kicking things off!

Class 01, 08/24: Introduction to the economics of healthcare and causal inference.
- Intro to healthcare slides
- Intro to causal inference slides

Module 1: Hospitals

Class 02, 08/29: Background and institutional details.
- Background slides
- Chang and Jacobson (2010), What do nonprofit hospitals maximize?, presented by Katie
- Bayindir (2012), Hospital ownership and treatment choices, presented by Pablo
Class 03, 08/31: Hospitals and financial incentives, part I
- Dafny (2005), How do hospitals respond to price changes?, presented by Wonjun
- Eliason et al. (2018), Strategic patient discharge: The case of long-term care hospitals, presented by Ka Yan
- Gupta (2021), Impacts of performance pay for hospitals: The readmissions reduction program, presented by Rachel
Class 04, 09/05: Labor Day, no class
Class 05, 09/07: Hospitals and financial incentives, part II
- Batty and Ippolito (2017), Financial incentives, hospital care, and health outcomes: Evidence from fair pricing laws, presented by Jingquan
- Lee (2020), How do hospitals respond to managed care? Evidence from at-risk newborns, presented by Amy
Class 06, 09/12 - Class 08, 09/19: Empirical application with DD

Module 2: Physicians

Class 09, 09/21: Background and institutional details
- Finkelstein, Gentzkow and Williams (2016), Sources of Geographic Variation in Health Care: Evidence from Patient Migration, presented by Pablo
- Molitor (2018), The Evolution of Physician Practice Styles: Evidence from Cariologist Migration, presented by Rachel
Class 10, 09/26: Physician agency, financial incentives, and referrals
- Clemens and Gottlieb (2014), Do physicians’ financial incentives affect medical treatment and patient health, presented by Wonjun
- Zeltzer (2020), Gender homophily in referral networks: Consequences for the Medicare physician earning gap, presented by Pablo
- Chernew et al (2021), Physician agency, consumerism, and the consumption of lower-limb MRI scans, presented by Martha
Class 11, 09/28: Physician learning
- Crawford and Shum (2005), Uncertainty and Learning in Pharmaceutical Demand, presented by Jung Jae
- Sarsons (2018), Interpreting Signals in the Labor Market: Evidence from Medical Referrals, presented by Paul
- Johnson (2011), Ability, Learning, and the Career Path of Cardiac Specialists, presented by Rachel
Class 12, 10/03 - Class 13, 10/05: Empirical application with IV
- Introduction to Instrumental Variables
- Instrumental Variables Assumptions and Interpretation
Class 14, 10/10: Fall break
Class 15, 10/12: Empirical application with IV, cont’d
- Common IV Designs

Module 3: Information disclosure

Class 16, 10/17: Patient decision-making
- Ketcham et al (2012), Sinking, Swimming, or Learning to Swim in Medicare Part D, presented by Jingxuan
- Gaynor et al (2016), Free to Choose? Reform, Choice, and Consideration Sets in the English National Health Service, presented by Katie
Class 17, 10/19: Inertia in health insurance choice
- Handel (2013), Adverse Selection and Inertia in Health Insurance Markets, presented by Amy
- Ericson (2014), Consumer Inertial and Firm Pricing in the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Insurance Exchange, presented by Nixon
Class 18, 10/24: Effects of quality disclosure
- Dranove et al (2003), Is more information better? THe effects of report cards on health care providers, presented by Jung Jae
- Dafny and Dranove (2008), Do report cards tell consumers anything they don’t already know? The case of Medicare HMOs, presented by Martha
- Kolstad (2013), Information and quality when motivation is intrinsic: Evidence from surgeon report cards, presented by Paul. postponed to Wednesday, 10/26
Class 19, 10/26: Effects of price disclosure
- Brown (2019), Equilibrium effects of health care price information, presented by Noah
Class 20, 10/31 - Class 21, 11/02: Empirical application with RD
- Introduction to RD
- Extensions to Basic RD

Module 4: Healthcare competition and industrial organization

Class 22, 11/07: Competition in price and quality
- Dranove et al (1992), Is hospital competition wasteful?, presented by Nixon
Class 23, 11/09: Measuring hospital markets and market power
- Everson et al (2019), Comparing methods of grouping hospitals, presented by Jingxuan
- Dranove and Ody (2016), Evolving measures of provider market power, presented by Amy
Class 24, 11/14: “Structure-Conduct-Performance”
- Miller et al (2022), On the misuse of regressions of price on the HHI in merger review, presented by Ka Yan
- Kessler and McClellan, Is hospital competition socially wasteful?, presented by Paul
Class 25, 11/16: Bargaining framework
- Ho and Lee (2017), Insurer competition in health care markets, presented by Katie
- Clemens and Gottlieb (2017), In the shadow of a giant: Medicare’s influence on private physician payments, presented by Ka Yan
Class 26, 11/21: No meeting today. Class rescheduled for December 2
Class 27, 11/23: Effects of mergers or closures (virtual class)
- Craig, Grennan, and Swanson (2021), Mergers and marginal costs: New evidence on hospital buyer power, presented by Wonjun
- Eliason et al (2020), How acquisitions affect firm behavior and performance: Evidence from the dialysis industry, presented by Jung Jae
Class 28, 11/28: Out-of-market mergers
- Dafny, Ho, and Lee (2019), The price effects of cross-market mergers: Theory and evidence from the hospital industry, presented by Martha
- Schmitt (2018), Multimarket contact in the hospital industry, presented by Noah
Class 29, 11/30: Vertical integration
- Luco and Marshall (2020), The competitive impact of vertical integration by multiproduct firms, presented by Noah
- Koch, Wendling, and Wilson (2021), The effects of physician and hospital integration on Medicare beneficiaries’ health outcomes, presented by Nixon
12/02 (rescheduled from 11/21) and Class 30, 12/05: Empirical application with demand estimation
- Hospital Market Definitions and HHI
- Basics of Demand Estimation