In economic perspective, the agency relationship between a patient and his physician has dramatically changed in the past years and is still evolving. Great emphasis is now placed on communication issues. The debate on the amount and precision of information on his health status the patient...

We analyse a model of patient decision-making where anxiety about the future characterizes the patient's utility function. Anxiety corresponds to fear of bad news and results in the patient being averse to information. First, the patient chooses the accuracy of a signal which discloses...

In this paper we use a simple theoretical model to compare alternative regulation regimes for the reimbursement of medical innovations when responses to a new treatment (effectiveness) are heterogeneous within the eligible population. We study two dimensions: i) efficiency in selecting...

The purpose of this paper is to analyse patient's mobility across Italian regions. A modified gravity model of patient migration is specified and estimated using panel observations covering mobility and other main regional quality indicators over the period 1994-1997. Despite the high level of...