Health Economics Research Programme

Background

The aim of the Health Economics Research Programme is to conduct high quality and policy relevant research across a number of areas of applied health economics. The programme is based within the Melbourne Institute and also has members from across the University of Melbourne, including the Department of Economics, School of Population Health, and Department of General Practice.

Research is funded from competitive external grants from ARC, NHMRC, state and Commonwealth governments, and other sources. Members have a strong international record of health economics research in the following areas.

• Health care workforce, labour markets and incentives for health professionals.
• Health insurance and health care finance.
• Performance, incentives and competition in health care.
• The economics of primary health care services.
• Socio-economic determinants of health.
• Obesity
• Health in developing countries
• Economic evaluation

These are under-researched areas of work within Australia and internationally, as well as being highly policy relevant. The methods used in these areas include the interrogation of large datasets using econometric techniques, through to the collection of data using specially designed surveys and experiments.

Members

Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research

Prof. Anthony Scott, Dr. Julia Witt, Ms. Stefanie Schurer, Mr. Peter Sivey (from 1st Feb 2008), Ms. Alison Goode, Ms. Anne Leahy

From the Industrial Economics Programme: Dr. Jongsay Yong, Dr. Paul Jensen, A/Prof. Beth Webster

From the Labour Economics and Social Policy Programme: Prof. Kostas Mavromaras,A/Prof. Guyonne Kalb, Dr. Sung-hee Jeon, Dr. Lixin Cai, Dr. Heilke Buddlemeyer

Department of Economics

A/Prof. Mike Shields, Dr. Jenny Williams, Prof. Jan van Ours, A/Prof. Lisa Cameron, Dr. Manisha Shah, Dr. Liana Jacobi, Prof. Jeff Borland

Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences

Dr. Arthur Hseuh (Centre for Health Policy, Programs and Economics, School of Population Health), Ms. Janelle Seymour (Department of General Practice)

Visitors in 2007/8

Dr. Tom van Ourti, Erasmus University (April 2007 - February 2008)

Dr. Ellen van der Poel, Erasmus University, (April 2007 - February 2008)

Prof. Mandy Ryan, University of Aberdeen (March 2007)

Dr. Murray Smith, University of Aberdeen (February - March 2007)

Ms. Sharon Rayner, Victorian Public Health Training Scheme (July - October 2007)

Current Projects:

• MABEL - Medicine in Australia: Balancing Employment and Life . The Australian Longitudinal Survey of Doctors. NHMRC Health Services Research Program (2007 to 2011). Contact: Prof. Anthony Scott
• Blended payment systems for doctors. Evaluation of a natural experiment. ARC Discovery Grant (2007 to 2008). Contact: Prof. Anthony Scott.
• Economic Modelling of the Nurses' Labour Market in Australia. ARC Linkage Grant (2007-2009). Linkage partner: Victorian Department of Human Services. Contact: Prof. Anthony Scott.
• Measuring Hospital Performance: Outputs, Quality of Care, Competition and Efficiency. Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (2005-2008). Linkage partner: Victorian Dept of Human Services. Contact: Dr. Jongsay Yong
• Economic Evaluation of Obesity Prevention. Economic and Social Research Council/Medical Research Council (UK). Contact: Prof. Kostas Mavromaras.

Recently completed projects, papers, and presentations:

• Hospital Type and Patient Outcomes: An Empirical Examination Using AMI Re-admission and Mortality Records. Melbourne Institute Working Paper 31/07.
• The Value of the Divisions Network. The Effect of Divisions of General Practice on Primary Health Care Performance. Funded by Australian Divisions of General Practice (2006). Contact: Prof. Anthony Scott.
• Designing choice experiments with many attributes. An application to orthopaedic waiting lists. Melbourne Institute Working Paper 24/06.
• Innovative Models of Comprehensive Primary Health Care Delivery. Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute (Stream 4). 2005-6. In collaboration with the Department of General Practice, University of Melbourne. Contact: Prof. Anthony Scott.
• The Productivity of Doctors in Australia: The 'Flat of the Curve' and beyond? Melbourne Institute Working Paper 19/05
• Long-term impact of caring on care givers. Department of Family and Community Services (2005). Contact: Dr Jongsay Yong
• Scott A. For love or money. Alternative methods of paying physicians. Paper presented to conference on ‘Sustaining Prosperity: New Reform Opportunities for Australia ’, Melbourne , 31 st March to 1 st April, 2005
• Dawkins P. Webster E., Hopkins S., Yong J. Recent Private Health Insurance Policies in Australia : Health Resource Utilization, Distributive Implications and Policy Options. Report commissioned by Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet, 2004
• Dawkins P., Palangkaraya A., Webster E., Yong J. The Distributive Consequences of Recent Private Health Insurance Policies in Australia : Gainers versus Losers. Melbourne Institute Working Paper, 2005
• Palangkaraya A., Yong J. How Effective is ‘Lifetime Health Cover’ in Raising Private Health Insurance Coverage in Australia ? An Assessment Using Regression Discontinuity. Melbourne Institute Working Paper, 2004
• Palangkaraya A., Yong J. Effects of Recent Carrot-and-stick Policy Initiatives on Private Health Insurance Coverage in Australia . Melbourne Institute Working Paper, 2004. (Accepted for publication in Economic Record)
• Yong J. Preventive versus Curative Health Care: The State of Public Health in Australia . Report commissioned by the Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance, 2003
• Johnson D., Yong J. Costly Ageing or Costly Deaths? Understanding Health Care Expenditure Using Australian Medicare Payments Data. Paper presented at the International Conference on Population Ageing and Health, Canberra , 8-9 Dec, 2003