Does It Pay to Know Prices in Health Care?
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
vol. 9,
no. 1, February 2017
(pp. 154-79)
(Complimentary)
Abstract
Consumers rarely know the price of medical care before they consume it. I use variation in the timing of access to a new source of price information to show how access to and search for price information leads consumers to pay significantly less for care. I provide suggestive evidence that insurance coverage inhibits the use of price information, rationalizing the relatively low rates of search. The results indicate that availability of price information could have large impacts on prices even in the absence of general equilibrium effects.Citation
Lieber, Ethan M J. 2017. "Does It Pay to Know Prices in Health Care?" American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 9 (1): 154-79. DOI: 10.1257/pol.20150124Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D82 Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
- D83 Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
- G22 Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies
- I11 Analysis of Health Care Markets
- I13 Health Insurance, Public and Private
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