On Competition and Regulation in Health Care Systems

The study explores the dynamics of competition and regulation within healthcare systems undergoing reform, focusing on four key fields. It employs microeconomic theory and microeconometrics to reveal how price regulation influences care quality and how non-price competition impacts the effectiveness of gatekeeping systems. By analyzing data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, it challenges the established notion of risk selection by German sickness funds, offering new insights into the interplay between market forces and regulatory frameworks in healthcare.