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• Comparative Effectiveness vs. Cost Effectiveness Research

  March 11, 2010 in Public Policy, Quality

  Comparative Effectiveness has been a hot topic in health services research. According to a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine, “the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 authorizes the expenditure …

• 100th Edition of the CoR plus other links

  March 10, 2010 in Carnivals, Current Events

  Russell Hutchinson presents the 100th edition of the Cavalcade of Risk. Here are some other links of interest German Ministry of Health considers a 20-30% cut in hospital beds….

• “The country’s dismal rates of vaginal birth after Caesarean”

  March 9, 2010 in Nonphysician Clinicians, Physician Compensation

  From the N.Y. Times: The national Caesarean rate, 31.8 percent, has been rising steadily for the last 11 years and is fed by repeat patients. Critics say that doctors are performing too many Caesareans, needlessly …

• The Value of End-of-Life Medical Care

  March 8, 2010 in Economics - General

  Some estimates claim that one-quarter of life-time spending on medical care occurs in the last year of an individual’s life.  Conventional wisdom says this is inefficient, but a paper by Philipson, Becker, Goldman and …

• The Problem with Rent Control

  March 5, 2010 in Economics - General

  Most economists rail against rent control.  Rent control distorts the real estate markets.  Individuals in rent controlled apartments are receiving ‘rents’ (in the economic sense) because they live in higher quality apartments than they are paying for.  In addition, it provides them a strong incentive to stay in their apartment even if they would prefer to move to a different apartment or location.  Rent control also limits the supply of new housing because developers know they will not be able to earn a profit for new housing if the rents are held down. Those who support rent control argue that the program helps people who can not afford to live in their house.  But a more effective way to may housing affordable would be to give direct cash grants to poor individuals so they can afford the market rents. On one of my days off, I was watching a Law and Order episode and found another drawback to rent control, it distorts the landlord’s incentive.  Oftentimes, rent control remains with a unit until the tenant moves out.  Typically, a landlord has an incentive to maintain an apartment quality to keep their current tenant or attract new ones.  They balance the cost of making improvements against the cost of losing their tenants.