Health Economics, second edition

The new edition of a textbook that combines economic concepts with empirical evidence, updated with material on the Affordable Care Act and other developments.This book introduces students to the growing research field of health economics. Rather than offer details about health systems without providing a theoretical context, Health Economics combines economic concepts with empirical evidence to enhance readers' economic understanding of how health care institutions and markets function. The theoretical and empirical approaches draw heavily on the general field of applied microeconomics, but the text moves from the individual and firm level to the market level to a macroeconomic view of the role of health and health care within the economy as a whole. The book takes a global perspective, with description and analysis of institutional features of health sectors in countries around the world. This second edition has been updated to include material on the U.S. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, material on the expansion of health insurance in Massachusetts, and an evaluation of Oregon's Medicaid expansion via lottery. The discussion of health care and health insurance in China has been substantially revised to reflect widespread changes there. Tables and figures have been updated with newly available data. Also new to this edition is a discussion of the health economics literature published between 2010 and 2015. The text includes readings, extensive references, review and discussion questions, and exercises. A student solutions manual offers solutions to selected exercises. Dwnldable supplementary material is available for instructors.

About the Author

Frank Sloan, awarded the Victor R. Fuchs Award for Lifetime Contributions to the Field of Health Economics in 2016, is J. Alexander McMahon Professor of Health Policy and Management and Professor of Economics at Duke University. He is coauthor of The Price of Smoking (2004) and Medical Malpractice (2008) and coeditor of Incentives and Choices in Health Care (2008), all published by the MIT Press. Chee-Ruey Hsieh is a Research Professor of Health Economics at Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University, and the Global Health Research Center, Duke Kunshan University.