Need for economics research (and economists ?) in Access to Medicines work Gita Sen

Macro-economics Links to: – direction of international funding – govt budgets and health financing – impoverishment, catastrophic expenditures – health sector reform and health system change

Industry studies The study of firms in markets - industrial organization focuses on firm behavior in imperfectly competitive markets, the acquisition and use of market power by firms modeling, game theoretic approaches, static and dynamic models concentration / competition /measuring mkt power, oligopoly studies, strategic interactions among firms (non-cooperative and cooperative oligopoly / tacit collusion costs and pricing (oligopolistic pricing and price discrimination, predatory pricing), cartels and price-fixing entry barriers, product differentiation, horizontal anti-trust policy (mergers, alliances, joint ventures), strategic investment asymmetric information, auctions, networks patents and technology diffusion role of government competition policy

Need for theory devt Regulation and anti-trust in the arena of public goods – under-theorised Public goods - non-rivalrous and non-exclusionary; externalities are a subset of public goods Position of drugs derives from different parts of health – preventive and public health, primary care, infectious diseases seen as public goods – tertiary care typically seen as private goods – Question; is a healthy population overall a public good? equity as a public good (Wilkinson and Pickett) ?– much work to be done that needs progressive technical economics.

Institutional opportunities Health economics associations – IHEA (International Health Economics Association) with affiliated national associations – health economists Particular universities and research institutions – north and south – consortium of industrial economists?