Course Descriptions

HCMG9000 - Proseminar in He (Course Syllabus)

This course is intended to provide entering doctoral students with information on the variety of health economics models, methods, topics, and publication outlets valued and used by faculty in the HCMG doctoral program and outside of it. The course has two main parts: the first, to acquaint students with theoretical modeling tools used frequently by health economists. This part of the course involves a number of lectures coupled with students' presentations from the health economics, management and operations research community at Penn on a research method or strategy they have found helpful and they think is important for all doctoral students to know.

HCMG9010 - Proseminar in He (Course Syllabus)

This course will cover empirical methods used in economics research with an emphasis on applications in health care and public economics. The methods covered include linear regression, matching, panel data models, instumental variables, regression discontinuity, bunching, qualitative and limited dependent variable models, count data, quantile regressions, and duration models. the discussion will be a mix of theory and application, with emphasis on the latter. The readings consist of a blend of classic and recent methodological and empirical papers in economics. Course requirements include several problem sets, paper presentations, an econometric analysis project and a final exam. The course is open to doctoral students from departments other than Health Care Management with permission from the instructor.

HCMG9020 - Industrial Org of Hc (Course Syllabus)

This advanced PhD seminar will explore topics in the industrial organization of health care and structural econometric approaches in health economics. The focus in this course is the development of advanced econometric tools. The (tentative) topics covered include health insurance and hospital demand estimation, the analysis of hospital competition, insurer competition, quality competition, technology adoption, models of entry and exit and dynamic oligopoly games. The readings will focus on recent advances in economics. Students are required to present recent research from the field and write an empirical research paper that broadly based on the topics covered in the course. With the permission of the instructor, the seminar is open to doctoral students from departments other than Health Care Management.

HCMG9030 - Econ Hlth Cr & Policy (Course Syllabus)

This course applies basic economic concepts to analyze the health care market and evaluate health policies. The course begins with a discussion of productivity in health care and of the theoretical and empirical effects of asymmetric information and market failure. The second part of the course explores several topic areas in the health care economics literature: health insurance and the labor market; health policy interventions; and health as human capital. The third part of the course examines competition and the behavior of health care providers, with emphasis on the impact of policy on competition, behavior, and finally, bringing us full circle, health care productivity.

HCMG9040 - Sem in Obt in Healthcare (Course Syllabus)

This course introduces students to organizational behavior and theory (OBT) by examining key issues in OBT, different perspectives on key issues, and how OBT informs health services research and practice. This course examines "micro" theories (i.e., social psychological theories of organizational behavior) and "macro" theories (i.e., theories focused on the structural and environmental aspects of organizations). We will examine the strengths and weaknesses of various theories, how they can be used as a foundation for research, methods used to study them, and the implications for health policy and management. Examples of published health services research grounded in OBT will be discussed so that students become familiar with the theories-in-use and various publication outlets for health care management (HCM) research.