Demand for traditional medicine in Taiwan: a mixed Gaussian-Poisson model approach.
Hurdle count models are used to examine the participation and consumption decisions in Chinese medicine use. Motivated by a household production model, a second censoring mechanism is introduced into existing single-hurdle models, and the resulting specification accommodates conscientious abstainers, as well as economic non-consumers, and admits excessive zeros in the sample. In contrast to previous studies that found few predictors, empirical results based on a Taiwanese national sample suggest that Western medicine is a gross substitute to Chinese medicine, and both time price and money price play more important roles than income. Insurance, lifestyle and demographics also determine the use of Chinese medicine.
Yen
S T
ST
Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557-0105, USA. syen@unr.edu
Tang
C H
CH
Su
S J
SJ
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D016011:Normal Distribution; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D013624:Taiwan