Welcome to the Chair of Health Economics

Health economists explore questions regarding individual and population health theoretically and empirically.

One major issue in health economics is the analysis of incentives affecting individual behaviour and therefore market outcomes. Although individual health may be determined by rational behaviour markets for health services often differ from other markets. Specifically, initial health conditions are an important determinant of health inequalities later in life. Reducing the latter therefore provides a challenging task for social policies. These relationships highlight the presence of a fairness/efficiency tradeoff which is to be balanced in health economic analyses. As restricted access to health care may damage the economic prospects of individuals and populations as a whole health economic research is of relevance not only with respect to industrialised countries but especially also regarding developing countries.

The chair's research focus comprises topics related to asymmetric information in health insurance markets, the economics of ageing, economics of disease and others with a clear empirical focus. Further details can be found here.

Courses in health economics are offered for Bachelor and Master students as well as for PhD students affiliated with the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics. Furthermore, the chair is responsible for the Master's programme Health Economics (GÖMIK).

The chair organises conferences and summer schools on a regular basis and is involved in several international research collaborations with colleagues in Europe and North America.