PhD-Course: Microeconomic Perspectives on Quality of Care

The course covers key aspects of quality provision from a microeconomic perspective. The focus is on quality of health care but the analysis can also be applied to quality provision issues in general. We consider both vertical and horizontal quality differentiation. Quality choice is analyzed both in a monopoly and a competitive setting. We give particular attention to discrimination and selection issues. Furthermore, we provide an introduction in the analysis of credence goods. Finally, we consider the design of optimal payment schemes in a principal-agent framework. We discuss contractibility issues both in a single and multi-task environment.