The price elasticity of demand for pharmaceuticals amongst high-income older Australians: a natural experiment

C-Tier
Journal: Applied Economics
Year: 2011
Volume: 43
Issue: 30
Pages: 4835-4846

Score contribution per author:

1.005 = (α=2.01 / 1 authors) × 0.5x C-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Most high-income older Australians became eligible for a pharmaceutical concession through a 1999 policy change. I exploit this natural experiment to estimate their price elasticity of demand for pharmaceuticals. The preferred model is a nonlinear Instrumental Variable (IV) regression, estimated on nationally representative repeated cross-sectional survey data using the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). No significant evidence is found for endogenous take-up, and so cross-sectional estimates are also considered. Taking all of the results into account, the 'headline' estimate is -0.1, implying that quantity demanded is not highly responsive to price.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:taf:applec:v:43:y:2011:i:30:p:4835-4846
Journal Field
General
Author Count
1
Added to Database
2026-01-29