Instructor: Robin D. Hanson, Associate Professor, Economics (rhanson@gmu.edu, http://hanson.gmu.edu)
Office Hours: Officially M,Th 6:00-7:00. 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, 4th Edition, Prentice Hall Business Publishing, 2004, ISBN: 0-13-100067-5, Sample Price $122.

Charles E. Phelps, Health Economics, Addison Wesley Publishing, 2003, ISBN: 0-321-06898-X, Sample Price $118.

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 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 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 pay people on their performance on an annual physical fitness test?
2. Should the tax-exemption for medical care be limited to care approved by federal evidence-based medicine panels?
3. You may choose the last topic. Here are some health policy questions you might consider.

• Quizzes: Feb 23, Mar 23, Apr 20
• Defended Opinions: Mar 23, Apr 20, May 4
• Graduate Research Paper: May 11
• Final: 7:30 - 10:15pm, May 11.

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