Instructor: Robin D. Hanson, Associate Professor, Economics (rhanson@gmu.edu, http://robinhanson.com)
Office Hours: Officially Mon 6:00-7:00pm, Th 3:00-4:00pm, but I'm usually in at 10A Carow Hall. Call ahead (703-993-2326) if you want to be sure.
Catalog Entry:

Econ 496, 895 Health Economics (3:3:0). Prerequisites: ECON 306. Determinants of Health. Supply, Demand, and Institutions of Health Insurance and Care. Evaluation of Market Failure Rationales for Regulation.

Sherman Folland, Allen C. Goodman, Miron Stano, Economics of Health and Health Care, 4=5th Edition, Prentice Hall Business Publishing, 2007, ISBN: 9780132279420, Sample Price $120.

Charles E. Phelps, Health Economics, Addison Wesley Publishing, 2003, ISBN: 0-321-06898-X, Sample Price $110.

Joseph P. Newhouse And The Insurance Experiment Group, Free For All? Lessons from the RAND Health Insurance Experiment, Harvard University Press, 1993, ISBN: 0-674-31914-1, Sample Price $27.

For undergraduates: To become familiar with basic facts and issues in health economics, and to be able to make an economically-coherent defense of one's opinions on health policy questions.
For graduate students: To in addition write a coherent research (not term) paper related to health economics.

• Class Participation Please contribute to class discussions.
• Quizzes Three In-Class Quizzes will given. All examas are open book, open notes.
• Defended Opinions You will turn in written defenses of your opinions on three health policy question. Here (on the web) are things to keep in mind when writing your defended opinions.
• Research Paper Those who take this class as Econ 895, a graduate class, are required to write a research paper on a health economics topic of their choosing.

1. Should we reduce medical subsidies to instead subsidize people to live where the air is cleaner: away from cities, and in better ventilated homes and offices?
2. Should Medicare or Medicaid let people diagnosed with a condition take a (perhaps discounted) cash equivalent, instead of medical treatment?
3. Should nurses and paramedics be allowed to compete directly with doctors in providing primary care?

• Quizzes: Feb 22, Mar 22, Apr 12
• Defended Opinions: Mar 22, Apr 12, May 3
• Graduate Research Paper: May 10
• Final: 4:30-7:15pm, May 10.

1. 496: Class Participate 5%, 13% per Quiz, 13% per Defended Opinions, 17% final.
2. 895: 1/2 of grade above items, 1/2 research paper.

Lecture Readings and Sources

On the web page, this links to a page of sources, most of which have links.

Misc Health Links

Disability Notice