Economics: Health Economics

You are introduced to the economic analysis of health and health care. Topics covered include the demand for health, health care and health insurance, frictions in insurance markets, socio-economic disparities in health, health care labor markets and health policy design. Illustrations come from the Swedish and international contexts. We will draw on concepts from theoretical microeconomics and discuss empirical studies.

By the end of the course, you will:

• understand the core concepts in health economics and health policy
• be able to analyse problem areas in health economics using modern microeconomic theory
• understand today’s biggest challenges for health care systems and formulate potential solutions
• be able to outline empirical designs for the study of questions within health economics
• understand key empirical studies in health economics and how their findings relate to economic theory

The course is aimed at those of you who are interested in working in the health or health care sectors as economists, researchers, administrators, managers, or policymakers. It prepares you for careers in health organisations – local or global, public or private.

Course literature

The course literature listed may be updated up to eight weeks before the course begins.

Teaching consists of lectures and exercise sessions. In the lectures, you are introduced to relevant microeconomic methods and discuss applications associated with a particular topic in health economics. During the exercise sessions, you discuss analytical problems that are related to the material covered in the lectures.

Your final grade consists of homework assignments and a written exam at the end of the course.

Prerequisites

General and at least 20 ECTS basic economics, of which at least 7.5 ECTS basic microeconomics. (The course Econometrics or 15 ECTS statistics is recommended)

Selection criteria

Seats are allocated according to the following: The general average (GPA) of your higher secondary school leaving certificate: 34 %, The Swedish national university aptitude test: 34 %, number of previous ECTS at the application deadline (up to 165): 32 %.

Tuition fees for non-EU/EEA citizens

Citizens of countries outside:

• The European Union (EU)
• The European Economic Area (EEA) and
• Switzerland

are required to pay tuition fees. You pay an instalment of the tuition fee in advance of each
semester.

Tuition fees, payments and exemptions

Full programme/course tuition fee: SEK 16,250
First payment: SEK 16,250

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Note that you may also need to pay an application fee, or provide proof of exemption.

Application fee

No tuition fees for citizens of the EU, EEA and Switzerland

There are no tuition fees for citizens of the European Union (EU), the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland.