Abstract
The pharmaceutical industry comprises firms which manufacture medicines, including vaccines. Many of these firms also perform some or all of the following functions: conducting basic scientific research to identify (patentable) chemical compounds with medicinal properties, developing those chemical compounds into safe, effective, and commercially viable medicines, gaining government approval to sell those medicines, and marketing those medicines to potential consumers and prescribers. This industry has been widely studied by those interested in the analysis of health care systems. However, I focus here on industrial organization research which seeks to explain general economic phenomena by using the pharmaceutical industry as a setting.
Keywords
- Agency problems
- Asymmetric information
- Entry
- Industrial organization
- Innovation
- Patents
- Pharmaceutical industry
- Rregulation
- Research
JEL Classifications
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsBibliography
Azoulay, P. 2004. Capturing knowledge across and within firm boundaries: Evidence from clinical development. American Economic Review 94: 1591–1612.
Berndt, E., Z. Griliches, and J. Rosett. 1993. Auditing the producer price index: Micro evidence from prescription pharmaceutical preparations. Journal of Business and Economic Statistics 2: 251–264.
Berndt, E., R. Pindyck, and P. Azoulay. 2003. Consumption externalities and diffusion in pharmaceutical markets: Antiulcer drugs. Journal of Industrial Economics 51: 243–270.
Boskin, M., E. Dulberger, R. Gordon, Z. Griliches, and D. Jorgenson. 1996. Toward a more accurate measure of the cost of living. Final report to the Senate Finance Committee from the Advisory Commission to Study the Consumer Price Index. Washington, DC: Senate Finance Committee.
Caves, R., M. Whinston, and M. Hurwitz. 1991. Patent expiration, entry and competition in the US pharmaceutical industry: An exploratory analysis. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 1991: 1–48.
Danzon, P., and L. Chao. 2000. Cross-national price differences for pharmaceuticals: How large and why? Journal of Health Economics 19: 159–195.
Ellison, G., and S. Ellison. 2000. Strategic entry deterrence and the behavior of pharmaceutical incumbents prior to patent expiration. Mimeo. Cambridge, MA: MIT.
Ellison, S., and W. Mullin. 2001. Gradual incorporation of information: Pharmaceutical stocks and the evolution of President Clinton’s health care reform. Journal of Law and Economics 44: 89–129.
Ellison, S., and C. Snyder. 2001. Countervailing power in wholesale pharmaceuticals, Working Paper 01-27. Cambridge, MA: MIT.
Ellison, S., and C. Wolfram. 2000. Pharmaceutical prices and political activity, Working Paper 8482. Cambridge, MA: NBER.
Ellison, S., I. Cockburn, Z. Griliches, and J. Hausman. 1997. Characteristics of demand for pharmaceutical products: An examination of four cephalosporins. RAND Journal of Economics 28: 426–446.
Griliches, Z., and I. Cockburn. 1995. Generics and new goods in pharmaceutical price indexes. American Economic Review 84: 1213–1232.
Hellerstein, J. 1998. Importance of the physician in the generic versus trade-name prescription decision. RAND Journal of Economics 29: 108–136.
Henderson, R., and I. Cockburn. 1996. Scale, scope and spillovers: Determinants of research productivity in the pharmaceutical industry. RAND Journal of Economics 27: 32–59.
Kyle, M. 2005. Pharmaceutical price controls and entry strategies. Mimeo, Duke University.
Scott Morton, F. 1997. The strategic response by pharmaceutical firms to the Medicaid most-favored-customer rules. RAND Journal of Economics 28: 269–290.
Scott Morton, F. 1999. Entry decisions in the generic drug industry. RAND Journal of Economics 30: 421–440.
Stern, S., and M. Trajtenberg. 1998. Empirical implications of physician authority in pharmaceutical decisionmaking, Working Paper 6851. Cambridge, MA: NBER.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Ellison, S.F. (2018). Pharmaceutical Industry. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2404
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2404
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95188-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95189-5
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences