The dominant theory in economics for centuries in the Western world has been the free market system, yet the ability of competitive markets to provide quality care has been a central point of recent debate. Extensive government regulation, though well-intentioned, adversely affects the overall health of Americans, inhibits medical innovation, and demands enormous tax-payer investment. The Initiative on Enabling Choice and Competition in Healthcare delivers cutting edge research on the efficiencies of competitiveness in the healthcare sector to demonstrate that free market forces can and do work to provide innovative, equitable, and high-quality care.
Our Vision
To be the leading university-based research center in free-market healthcare, promoting choice and competition to ensure greater access to existing care and new innovations.
Our Mission
To conduct evidence-based research and analyses on market-based choice and competition in the healthcare sector to lead to better-informed policy recommendations.
Working Papers
The Employer Penalty, Voluntary Compliance, and the Size Distribution of Firms: Evidence from a Survey of Small Businesses
A new survey of 745 small businesses shows little change in the size dis- tribution of businesses between 2012 and 2016, except among businesses with 40–74 employees, in a way that is closely related to whether they of- fer health insurance coverage. Using measures of...
The Upside-down Economics of Regulated and Otherwise Rigid Prices
A hedonic model featuring quality-quantity tradeoffs reveals a number of surprising market behaviors that can result from price regulations that are imposed on competitive markets for products that have adjustable non-price attributes. Quality need not clear a...
Adjusting Measures of Economic Output for Health: Is the Business Cycle Countercyclical?
National accounts of economic output and prosperity, such as gross domestic product (GDP) or net domestic product (NDP), offer an incomplete picture of economic well-being. Building on previous work to improve estimates of the levels of economic output, this paper...
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In the Press
Legislators should monitor mission creep at CMS’s flush price control center | The Hill | 04/12/23
By Tomas J. Philipson Section 11004 of The Inflation Reduction Act allocates $3 billion to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services over the...
The Deadly Side Effects of Drug Price Controls | WSJ | 4/5/23
The latest Medicare guidance will stifle pharmaceutical innovation—and it’s worse than we thought. By Tomas J. Philipson "The Biden administration...
Profitable Science Empowers Patients | Washington Examiner | 3/14/23
By Tomas J. Philipson "Major breakthroughs in medicine , such as treatments for HIV, Hepatitis C, and COVID-19, offer the greatest empowerment to...
2024 ECCHC Supply-Side Economics in Healthcare Conference – Watch Now!
The 2024 ECCHC Supply-side Economics in Healthcare Conference convened both in-person and virtually on Friday, May 3. Watch the full conference, or individual presentations and learn more about the conference here!