A model of physician behaviour with demand inducement.
We present a model of the physician-patient relationship extending on the model by Farley [Farley, P.J., 1986. Theories of the price and quantity of physician services. Journal of Health Economics 5, 315-333] of supplier-induced demand (SID). First, we make a case for the way this model specifies professional ethics, physician competition, and SID itself. Second, we derive predictions from this model, and confront them with the neoclassical model. Finally, we stress the importance of considering how SID affects patient welfare in providing an example where physicians' ability to induce makes patients better off. To evaluate patient welfare, we derive approximations of the patients' welfare loss due to physician market power in both the neoclassical model and the inducement model.
De Jaegher
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K
Vakgroep Micro-economie van de Profit- en Non-Profit-Sector, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. kris.de.jaegher@vub.ac.be
Jegers
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M
D004465:Economic Competition; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D018803:Models, Economic; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology*