Medical Care Output and Productivity.

• Position: Conference of the National Bureau of Economic Research

The NBER's Conference on Research in Income and Wealth held a conference on "Medical Care Output and Productivity" in Bethesda, Maryland on June 12-13. Ernst R. Berndt, NBER and MIT, and David M. Cutler, NBER and Harvard University, organized this program:

Paul Ellickson, MIT, Scott Stern, NBER and MIT, and Manuel Trajtenberg, NBER and Tel Aviv University, "Patient Welfare and Patient Compliance: An Empirical Framework for Measuring the Benefits from Pharmaceutical Innovation."

Discussant: Jonathan S. Skinner, NBER and Dartmouth College

David Meltzer, NBER and University of Chicago. "Theoretical Foundations of Cost-Benefit Analysis"

Discussant: Douglas Cocks, Eli Lilly and Co.

Ernst R. Berndt; David M. Cutler; Richard Frank, Zvi Griliches, and Joseph P. Newhouse, NBER and Harvard University; and Jack E. Triplett, The Brookings Institution, "Price Indexes for Medical Care Goods and Services: An Overview"

Discussant: Brent R. Moulton, Bureau of Economic Analysis

Ina Kay Ford and Daniel H. Ginsburg, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), "Medical Care in the CPI"

Dennis Fixler and Mitchell Ginsburg, BLS, "Health Care Output and Prices in the Producer Price Index"

Discussant: Joseph P. Newhouse

Arthur Sensenig, Health Care Financing Administration, and Ernest Wilcox, Bureau of Economic Analysis, "Reconciling Health Care Spending Estimates: National Health Accounts and National Income and Product Accounts Estimates of Hospital Care and Physician Services"

Discussant: Haiden Huskamp, Harvard University

Sherry A. Glied, NBER and Columbia University, "The Value of Reductions in Child Injury Mortality in the United States"

Discussant: James Schuttinga, National Institutes of Health

Iain M. Cockburn, NBER and University of British Columbia, and Aslam Anis, St. Paul's Hospital, "Hedonic Analysis of Arthritis Drugs" (NBER Working Paper No. 6574)

Discussant: J. Steven Landefeld, Bureau of Economic Analysis

Tomas Philipson, NBER and University of Chicago, and Darius Lakdawalla and Charles Mullin, University of Chicago, "Medical Care Output and Productivity in the Nonprofit Sector"

Discussant: Richard Frank

Ernst R. Berndt; Susan Busch, Harvard University; and Richard Frank, "Price Indexes for Acute Phase Treatment of Depression" (NBER Working Paper No. 6417)

Discussant: Darrel Regier, National Institutes of Health

Irving Shapiro, Phillips Eye Institute; Matthew Shapiro, NBER and University of Michigan; and David A. Wilcox, U.S. Department of the Treasury, "Measuring the Value of Cataract Surgery"

Discussant: Richard Suzman, National Institute on Aging

Ellickson, Stern, and Trajtenberg present a framework for evaluating patients' welfare from pharmaceutical innovations. In contrast to most previous studies on such topics, theirs is concerned specifically with the relationship between the institutions of pharmaceutical decisionmaking and the choices made by patients and physicians. The authors'...