HEALTH ECONOMICS (Econ 132) 
  SYLLABUS
[http://cameron.econ.ucdavis.edu/e132/e132syl.html]
Department of Economics, University of California - Davis
SPRING 2015

Instructor:
Professor Colin Cameron,  1124 Social Sciences and Humanities
Email: accameron@ucdavis.edu  Website: http://www.econ.ucdavis.edu/faculty/cameron

Meeting: Tues Thurs 12.10 - 1.30 p.m.  Young 194

Office Hours:  Tuesday       2.00-3.30 p.m.
                         Wednesday  2.00-3.30 p.m. 

Teaching Assistant: 
    Dillon Carlos  SSH 0125  djcarlos@ucdavis.edu 
    Office hours: Wednesday 12.00-2.00 p.m.

Discussion Sections:
    A01: Wednesday 5.10 - 6.00 pm  Hoagland 113
    A02: Wednesday 6.10 - 7.00 pm  Hoagland 113
Course Goals:
The course goals are:
(1) Provide a detailed description of the institutional features of the health care market and current trends in this rapidly changing field;
(2) Demonstrate the use and usefulness of analyzing the health care market using economic analysis, particularly microeconomics, and some statistical/mathematical analysis.
Compared to other areas of economics, health economics is complicated by a lack of information (about what health services the consumer needs), great uncertainty (hence insurance) and payment through third-parties (insurance companies) rather than direct payment by the consumer.

Pre-requisites:
Economics 100 (intermediate microeconomics) or consent of instructor.
Mathematics 16A-B: These are a pre-requisite for Economics 100.
Statistics 13: As health involves randomness and uncertainty (hence the need for insurance) I assume you have taken introductory statistics.
The course will go through a number of detailed data analysis examples. It is very helpful to have taken Economics 102 or its equivalent (regression analysis).

Textbook: Required   YOU NEED TO BUY AS I EXTENSIVELY USE THE BOOK PLUS FOR ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS
Jay Bhattacharya, Timothy Hyde and Peter Tu: Health Economics, First edition, Palgrave MacMillan, 2014.

This is the first time I have used this book.
This changes the topics I teach and the order of topics compared to previous classes of 132.

Supplementary Material: 
There is no coursepack, unlike previous years.
Any supplementary material, including assignments, will be posted at Smartsite.

Some past exams and solutions are at http://cameron.econ.ucdavis.edu/e132/e132.html
This year's exams will differ due to the change of textbook.

COURSE OUTLINE:

A. Introduction and Overview of U.S. Health Market
Class 1     Bhattacharya Chapter 1 + Supplemental Notes.

B. Demand
Classes 2-3.  Bhattacharya Chs.2-3 + Supplemental Notes (file Grossman.pdf)

C. Suppliers: Physicians and Hospitals
Classes 4-5.  Bhattacharya Chs.5-6

D. Economics of Health Insurance - CHANGE April 16 2015 (now do Ch.8 but only 9.11 and 9.12 in Ch.9)
Classes 6-7   Bhattacharya Chs.7, 8, 9.11-9.12.

***** Class 8  Midterm Exam 1   *****

D. Economics of Health Insurance continued
Class 9.  Bhattacharya Ch.11.

E. Economics of Health Innovation
Classes 10-12.  Bhattacharya Ch.12-14 .

***** Class 14  Midterm Exam 2  *****

F. Health Policy and Medicare and Medicaid:
Classes 15-16. Bhattacharya Chs.15, 18.

F. Public Health Economics: Externalities and Obesity
Classes 17-19. Bhattacharya Chs.20-22.

Class 20.  Review of Course

COURSE GRADING:

Midterm Exam1:   22.5%    Thursday April 23    
Midterm Exam2:   22.5%    Thursday May 14  
Assignments:           10%       Due 12.10 p.m. Thursdays  April 9, 16, 30; May 7, 28; June 4.
Final Exam:             45%       Tuesday June 9  8.00 a.m. - 10.00 a.m.    Comprehensive.

Assignments will be graded satisfactory (2%) or unsatisfactory (0%). Full solutions will be distributed. Satisfactory means a serious attempt to answer at least 80% of the questions. The lowest of the scores on the six assignments is dropped, i.e. no penalty for not handing in one assignment if the other five are graded satisfactory. No credit for late assignments. Academic honesty is required - see below.

Exams are closed book with a mixture of short answer (about two-thirds) and multiple choice (about one-third) questions.
The final exam is comprehensive: about 60% on material up to the second midterm and 40% on the remainder.
FOR EXAMS YOU NEED TO BRING STUDENT PHOTO ID. I WILL DECIDE WHERE TO SEAT YOU. 

Scores are posted at Smartsite. You have one week from when work is first returned in class to raise any questions about grading.
AFTER THE FINAL EXAM IS TAKEN NO CHANGES WILL BE MADE FOR ANY REASON TO ANY SCORES RECORDED ON SMARTSITE.

Course grade is determined by the total score, with weights given above. The assignments are graded on a generous scale (satisfactory or unsatisfactory), so most students will get full credit on the assignment portion. Therefore for most students the course score is determined by scores on the quizzes and exams. To indicate your progress I give a grade on each midterm. But the final grade is determined by summing the exam and assignment scores (and not by averaging the grades).

I follow the department grading policy: "To ensure fairness and consistency in grading, the Department expects that the GPA in Economics 1A, 1B, 100, 101, and 102 will average 2.4. For example, a distribution with 20% A's, 30% B's, 30% C's, 10% D's, and 10% F's could be consistent with an overall GPA of 2.4. In more advanced courses the GPA is typically somewhat higher (2.7)."

What is academic honesty? From the UCD Student Judicial Affairs website http://sja.ucdavis.edu/cac.html, examples of Academic Misconduct include:
Cheating - includes receiving or providing unpermitted assistance on exams; using unauthorized materials during an exam; altering an exam and submitting it for regrading; taking an exam for another; failing to stop working on an exam when time is called; providing false excuses to postpone tests or due dates; fabricating data or references.
Unauthorized Collaboration - working with others on graded coursework without specific permission of faculty (on in-class or take-home tests, papers, labs, or homework assignments).
Plagiarism - using another's work without giving credit. You must put others' words in quotation marks and cite your source, and must give citations when using others' ideas, even if paraphrased in your own words.
Repeated Work - Submitting the same work in more than one course, unless authorized by instructor.
Exams - "Wandering eyes," talking during exams, having notes visible, or leaving the exam room without permission.

IMPORTANT: For my class the assignment work handed in must be your own.