Suchergebnisse

The share of output allocated to health care has more than doubled since 1960. This paper models the growth in this ratio and finds that the increase in the elderly population whose medical spending is heavily subsidized is a key factor behind this growth. Technological change is a symptom of the medical market structure rather than a cause of medical spending growth. The econometric model in the analysis here is based on a micro model composed of two groups. The first group is a healthier group that makes income transfers in order to finance the sicker group's health insurance premiums. In this model, a technical constraint places an upper bound on the healing ability of the medical good. This upper bound changes through an unobservable endogenous process. Estimating the health care model involves using estimation techniques that bypass the need to make any a priori assumptions about the functional form of the regressions or about the distribution of the residuals. The results suggest that technical change cannot indefinitely induce health care spending growth if no subsidies exist that provide full health care coverage with premiums fully paid by the subsidy. If subsidies provide full coverage and pay the entire premium, then new technical discoveries can induce constantly expanding medical expenditures.

In contrast to earlier studies, recent research finds that charitable contributions are tax‐price inelastic, suggesting that the itemized deduction for contributions loses more tax revenue than it increases in contributions. The estimates from parametric methods are similar to those in earlier studies that find that charity appears to be elastic with respect to the tax price. Because specification tests raise doubts about the consistency of these methods, the authors use a two‐stage semi‐parametric method and find that contributions are price inelastic. Contributions to social welfare organizations, however, are price elastic; their deductibility loses less in revenues than is contributed. (JEL C14, C34)

Although inflation is much feared for its negative effects on the economy, how to measure it is a matter of considerable debate that has important implications for interest rates, monetary supply, and investment and spending decisions. Underlying many of these issues is the concept of the Cost-of-Living Index (COLI) and its controversial role as the methodological foundation for the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Price Index Concepts and Measurements brings together leading experts to address the many questions involved in conceptualizing and measuring inflation. They evaluate the accuracy of COLI, a Cost-of-Goods Index, and a variety of other methodological frameworks as the bases for consumer price construction

Every time you buy a can of tuna or a new television, its bar code is scanned to record its price and other information. These "scanner data" offer a number of attractive features for economists and statisticians, because they are collected continuously, are available quickly, and record prices for all items sold, not just a statistical sample. But scanner data also present a number of difficulties for current statistical systems. Scanner Data and Price Indexes assesses both the promise and the challenges of using scanner data to produce economic statistics. Three papers present the results of work in progress at statistical agencies in the U.S., United Kingdom, and Canada, including a project at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to investigate the feasibility of incorporating scanner data into the monthly Consumer Price Index. Other papers demonstrate the enormous potential of using scanner data to test economic theories and estimate the parameters of economic models, and provide solutions for some of the problems that arise when using scanner data, such as dealing with missing data

Health care costs represent a nearly 18% of U.S. gross domestic product and 20% of government spending. While there is detailed information on where these health care dollars are spent, there is much less evidence on how this spending affects health. The research in Measuring and Modeling Health Care Costs seeks to connect our knowledge of expenditures with what we are able to measure of results, probing questions of methodology, changes in the pharmaceutical industry, and the shifting landscape of physician practice. The research in this volume investigates, for example, obesity's effect on health care spending, the effect of generic pharmaceutical releases on the market, and the disparity between disease-based and population-based spending measures. This vast and varied volume applies a range of economic tools to the analysis of health care and health outcomes. Practical and descriptive, this new volume in the Studies in Income and Wealth series is full of insights relevant to health policy students and specialists alike