Health Care Economics

(2.5,3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

ECON 30100 Health Economics at UCD; This course gives an overview of some of the main issues in Health Economics. The course begins by reviewing the Grossman model of the demand for health which treats health as both a consumption and an investment good. The course then examines the crucial issue of health insurance and the role of moral hazard and adverse selection. It also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of risk equalisation. The next part of the course analyses the asymmetry in information between doctor and patient, the principal-agent issue and supplier-induced-demand. The course then gives an overview of the role of economic evaluation in healthcare. The course then examines the economics of addictive substances such as tobacco and alcohol. The course then analyses the relationship between health, inequality and development and the final topic is the economics of obesity.