Economics of innovation in the pharmaceutical industry

This thesis is a collection of three essays which investigate the economics of innovation in the healthcare industry. In Chapter 2 I use a global data set to measure the effect of health losses and average patient income on innovation in different therapeutic areas. I show that the average patient income is a strong predictor of the number of clinical trials, and I demonstrate how this can be used to identify diseases that are underfunded relative to their harm to human health. Chapter 3 presents a theoretical model of health markets with public health insurance. The model describes the operation of the cost-effectiveness threshold frequently employed by public insurers to decide which health products to cover. I show that having two different thresholds for products with and without patents can increase efficiency. Chapter 4 introduces a structural model of pharmaceutical innovation. Estimates from this model show that the net effect of a firm's innovation on their rivals' decision to innovate in the same therapeutic area is negative. The model demonstrates that previous firm-specific experience in a therapeutic area is a key factor in the decision to invest in that therapeutic area.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Economics

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Arts

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Moradpour Taleshi, Javad

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Hollis, Aidan

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Lu, Mingshan
• Magesan, Arvind
• Laliberté, Jean William P.
• Devlin, Rose Anne

• Health innovation
• Empirical industrial organization
• Public health insurance
• Cost-effectiveness threshold
• Market power
• Health equity

Statement dc:rights

• University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.

Language dc:language.iso

eng

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/37998

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ucalgary.scholaris.ca:1880/112276