Department of Economics and Business, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
Health Econ. 2013 Jul;22(7):857-69. doi: 10.1002/hec.2864. Epub 2012 Aug 16.
This paper estimates the price elasticity of demand for prescription drugs using an exogenous shift in consumer co-payment caused by a reform in the Danish subsidy scheme for the general public. Using purchasing records for the entire Danish population, I show that the average price response for the most commonly used drug yields demand elasticities in the range of -0.36 to -0.5. The reform is shown to affect women, the elderly, and immigrants the most. Furthermore, this paper shows significant heterogeneity in the price response over different types of antibiotics, suggesting that the price elasticity of demand varies considerably even across relatively similar drugs.
本文利用丹麦全民医保补贴方案改革所导致的消费者共同支付额的外生变化，估计了处方药的需求价格弹性。利用丹麦全体居民的购药记录，本文表明，最常用药物的平均价格反应产生的需求弹性在-0.36 至-0.5 之间。改革对女性、老年人和移民的影响最大。此外，本文还表明，不同类型的抗生素的价格反应存在显著的异质性，这表明即使是相对相似的药物，需求价格弹性也存在很大差异。
