Course Description
This course provides an economic framework for understanding healthcare systems, healthcare markets, and healthcare policies. Students will explore how economic principles help analyze healthcare delivery, medical decision-making, and policy development. The course examines key challenges in healthcare markets including information asymmetry, moral hazard, adverse selection, and healthcare access inequities. Through analysis of real-world cases and current policy debates, students will learn to evaluate healthcare interventions and reforms from both economic efficiency and social equity perspectives. Special attention will be given to aging societies' healthcare challenges and international comparative health systems.

Main Topics

1. Introduction to Health Economics and Healthcare Markets
2. Production of Health and Demand for Healthcare
3. Health Insurance: Theory and Practice
4. Healthcare Provider Behavior and Payment Systems
5. Economic Evaluation in Healthcare
6. Health Inequalities and Social Determinants

Teaching Methods

The course combines theoretical lectures with case study discussions and applied problem-solving sessions. Students will analyze real-world health policy cases and current healthcare debates.
Throughout the semester, students will work on both individual and group projects that apply economic concepts to contemporary healthcare challenges. Students will develop skills in data analysis and policy evaluation through hands-on exercises using actual healthcare data.

Evaluation Methods

• Weekly assignment: 30%
• In-class presentation: 30%
• Policy analysis paper: 30%
• Active class participation: 10%

Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to:

1. Apply economic concepts and analytical tools to healthcare markets and policy issues
2. Evaluate the efficiency and equity implications of different healthcare systems and policies
3. Analyze the incentives and behaviors of various healthcare stakeholders
4. Assess healthcare interventions using economic evaluation methods
5. Develop evidence-based policy recommendations for improving healthcare systems

Bibliography

1. Bhattacharya, J., Hyde, T., & Tu, P. (2013). Health Economics (2nd ed.). Bloomsbury Publishing.
2. Drummond, M. F., Sculpher, M. J., Claxton, K., Stoddart, G. L., & Torrance, G. W. (2015). Methods for the Economic Evaluation of Health Care Programmes (4th ed.). Oxford University Press.
   https://nibmehub.com/opac-service/pdf/read/Methods%20for%20the%20Economic%20Evaluation%20of%20Health%20Care%20Programmes.pdf
3. Selected academic articles and policy papers will be assigned throughout the course.

Last updated: March 30, 2026