Increasing healthcare expenditure is a matter of concern in many countries, particularly in relation to the underlying drivers of such escalation that include ageing, medical innovation, and changes in the burden of disease, such as the growing prevalence of chronic diseases. Most healthcare...

The persistence of socioeconomic inequalities in health is a major policy concern in England, which was addressed by the new labour government in 1997 which prioritised curtailing health inequalities as a policy goal. This paper addresses two related questions: first, it empirically examines the...

The purpose of this paper is to convey the specific health care actions and policies undertaken by the Spanish government, as well as by regional governments, as a result of the economic crisis. Throughout the last two years we have witnessed a number of actions in areas such as human capital,...

Objective The aim of this study is to examine the factors driving the demand for drugs in Spain, focusing on the existence of disparities in pharmaceutical consumption between the Spanish and the foreign population.Methods Our analysis is based on a multilevel multinomial probit model that...

Both public and private insurance for long-term care (LTC) in European countries employed is underdeveloped. However, limited evidence is gathered on the behavioural demand responses to the introduction of insurance schemes expanding insurance coverage. This paper aims at empirically examining...

The sluggish development of European generic drug markets depends heavily on demand side factors, and more specifically, patients’ and doctors’ loyalty to branded products. Loyalty to originator drugs, to the point where originator prices rise upon generic entry has been described as the...

There is a widely discussed problem of publication bias in medical and health services research. Where quantitative effects form the basis of a publication a ‘winner's curse’ curse may apply. This phenomenon may occur as prospective authors of research papers compete by reporting ‘more...