Course Overview

We will introduce classic econometric applications in the field of Health Economics. Health Economics is concerned with issues related to the production and consumption of health and health care. Typical topics in this field are: social economic determinants of health and health behavior, demand and utilization of health services, impacts of polices or regulations on the behavior of hospitals and physicians, and etc. To empirically explore the above issues, econometric tools are widely used, which stems from economics theory and use models to measure the causal relationship between two economic variables.

The course consists of the following three modules: an introduction to basic econometrics, discussions on health economics related issues, and interpretations of empirical results. We will cover basic econometric topics on multiple regression, instrumental variable technique, difference-in-difference method, and panel data approach. During the course, excerpt of well-designed and published health economics research will be used as case study materials for in-class discussions. An emphasis will be placed on results interpretation.

Course Objectives

By the end of this semester, student should

 1) have a firm understanding on how econometric tools help to empirically address health economic questions; 

2) be able to interpret results from various econometric models; 

3) be able to evaluate critically the results and conclusions from other research related to health economics issues that use basic econometric tools; 

4) have a good foundation for further study of health economics and econometrics.


Handouts and Readings

Handouts for the whole semester will be given out during the third class meeting, which serve as the primary study material. A detailed list of the cases to be discussed in class is attached at the end of the syllabus.




复旦大学卫生经济计量方法介绍/Introduction to Econometric Applications in Health Economics版权所有