Identifying Industry Margins with Price Constraints: Structural Estimation on Pharmaceuticals

S-Tier
Journal: American Economic Review
Year: 2018
Volume: 108
Issue: 12
Pages: 3685-3724

Score contribution per author:

4.036 = (α=2.02 / 2 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

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

Abstract

We develop a structural model to investigate the effects of pharmaceutical price regulation on demand and on manufacturers' price-setting behavior in France. We estimate price-cost margins in a regulated market with price constraints and infer whether these constraints are binding, exploiting cost restrictions across drugs, which come from observing the same drugs in potentially price-constrained markets (France) and in markets where prices are unregulated (US and Germany). Our counterfactual simulations suggest that price constraints generated modest savings for anti-ulcer drugs in 2003–2013 (2 percent of total expenses), relative to a free pricing scenario, and shifted consumption from generic to branded drugs.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:aea:aecrev:v:108:y:2018:i:12:p:3685-3724
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25