In this paper we use published information to provide analyze the economic value of Direct to Consumer (DTC) advertising. We use information on: the effect of DTC in generating patient visits; the effect of patient visits and mentions of a drug in generating prescriptions; and the effect of...

The literature written by physicians about pharmaceutical marketing and promotion generally views this activity as harmful. This harm supposedly occurs because physicians who have contact with pharmaceutical sales representatives sometimes change their prescribing behavior. However, this result...

This was the first paper to discuss the benefits of direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising. It was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1985. The authors are Alison Masson (AKA Alison Keith) and Paul H. Rubin, and the paper was written when the authors were economists at the Federal...

Pharmaceutical sales representatives provide useful information about products, but they have incentives to be overly positive. The literature written by physicians about pharmaceutical marketing and promotion generally focuses on the harmful aspects of promotion, and misses the benefits. This...

Both the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control are very concerned about the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Both agencies advocate reducing the use of antibiotics in order to slow down or prevent this selection pressure for resistant bacteria. That is, the...

An agency conflict arises when consumers rely on middlemen for product recommendations. While consumers want the middlemen to recommend the most suitable product, the middlemen may earn a higher profit if the consumer buys some other product. An important setting where this conflict arises is...