[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/20091.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Market for High-Quality Medicine

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Bennett
  • Wesley Yin
Abstract
This study examines the effect of chain store entry on drug quality and prices in the retail pharmacy market in Hyderabad, India. In contrast to prevailing mom-and-pop pharmacies, chains exploit scale economies to offer high-quality drugs at lower cost. With a unique data set and a natural experiment methodology, we show that chain entry leads to a relative 5 percent improvement in drug quality and a 2 percent decrease in prices at incumbent retailers. These changes do not depend on the socioeconomic status of consumers, suggesting that chain entry improves consumer welfare throughout the market. Despite the likely role of asymmetric information in this market, we show that consumers partially infer these quality improvements. Our findings suggest that in markets with asymmetric information, organizational technologies such as chains may play an important role translating greater demand into higher quality.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Bennett & Wesley Yin, 2014. "The Market for High-Quality Medicine," NBER Working Papers 20091, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20091
    Note: DEV EH
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w20091.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Milgrom, Paul & Roberts, John, 1986. "Price and Advertising Signals of Product Quality," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(4), pages 796-821, August.
    2. Stephen G. Donald & Kevin Lang, 2007. "Inference with Difference-in-Differences and Other Panel Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 89(2), pages 221-233, May.
    3. Avner Shaked & John Sutton, 1982. "Relaxing Price Competition Through Product Differentiation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 49(1), pages 3-13.
    4. A. Colin Cameron & Jonah B. Gelbach & Douglas L. Miller, 2008. "Bootstrap-Based Improvements for Inference with Clustered Errors," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 414-427, August.
    5. Nelson, Phillip, 1970. "Information and Consumer Behavior," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(2), pages 311-329, March-Apr.
    6. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, April.
    7. Svensson, Jakob & Björkman Nyqvist, Martina & Yanagizawa-Drott, David, 2012. "Can Good Products Drive Out Bad? Evidence from Local Markets for (Fake?) Antimalarial Medicine in Uganda," CEPR Discussion Papers 9114, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Steven Berry & Joel Waldfogel, 2010. "Product Quality And Market Size," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(1), pages 1-31, March.
    9. Michael Spence, 1977. "Consumer Misperceptions, Product Failure and Producer Liability," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 44(3), pages 561-572.
    10. Edward Miguel & Michael Kremer, 2004. "Worms: Identifying Impacts on Education and Health in the Presence of Treatment Externalities," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(1), pages 159-217, January.
    11. David A. Matsa, 2011. "Competition and Product Quality in the Supermarket Industry," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(3), pages 1539-1591.
    12. Steven Salop, 1977. "The Noisy Monopolist: Imperfect Information, Price Dispersion and Price Discrimination," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 44(3), pages 393-406.
    13. Franklin Allen, 1984. "Reputation and Product Quality," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 15(3), pages 311-327, Autumn.
    14. Dranove, David & Satterthwaite, Mark A., 2000. "The industrial organization of health care markets," Handbook of Health Economics, in: A. J. Culyer & J. P. Newhouse (ed.), Handbook of Health Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 20, pages 1093-1139, Elsevier.
    15. Kamat, Vinay R. & Nichter, Mark, 1998. "Pharmacies, self-medication and pharmaceutical marketing in Bombay, India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 47(6), pages 779-794, September.
    16. Panle Jia, 2008. "What Happens When Wal-Mart Comes to Town: An Empirical Analysis of the Discount Retailing Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 76(6), pages 1263-1316, November.
    17. A. Michael Spence, 1975. "Monopoly, Quality, and Regulation," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 6(2), pages 417-429, Autumn.
    18. Bate, Roger & Jin, Ginger Zhe & Mathur, Aparna, 2011. "Does price reveal poor-quality drugs? Evidence from 17 countries," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 1150-1163.
    19. David M. Kreps & Jose A. Scheinkman, 1983. "Quantity Precommitment and Bertrand Competition Yield Cournot Outcomes," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 14(2), pages 326-337, Autumn.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Arzi Adbi & Ajay Bhaskarabhatla & Chirantan Chatterjee, 2020. "Stakeholder Orientation and Market Impact: Evidence from India," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 161(2), pages 479-496, January.
    2. Esther Atukunda & Anne Fitzpatrick, 2015. "An Evaluation of Factors Affecting Drug Quality: Evidence from the Antimalarial Market in Uganda," Working Papers 2015_03, University of Massachusetts Boston, Economics Department.
    3. Dupas, Pascaline & Miguel, Edward, 2016. "Impacts and Determinants of Health Levels in Low-Income Countries," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt3r04k69j, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    4. John Romley & Tiffany Shih, 2017. "Product safety spillovers and market viability for biologic drugs," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 135-158, June.
    5. Matias Busso & Sebastian Galiani, 2019. "The Causal Effect of Competition on Prices and Quality: Evidence from a Field Experiment," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 33-56, January.
    6. Ana Moura & Pedro Pita Barros, 2020. "Entry and price competition in the over‐the‐counter drug market after deregulation: Evidence from Portugal," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(8), pages 865-877, August.
    7. Giné, Xavier & Mazer, Rafael Keenan, 2022. "Financial (dis-)information: Evidence from a multi-country audit study," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    8. Miller, Rosalind & Hutchinson, Eleanor & Goodman, Catherine, 2018. "‘A smile is most important.’ Why chains are not currently the answer to quality concerns in the Indian retail pharmacy sector," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 9-16.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Belleflamme,Paul & Peitz,Martin, 2015. "Industrial Organization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107687899.
    2. Martin Gaynor, "undated". "What Do We Know About Competition and Quality in Health Care Markets?," GSIA Working Papers 2006-E62, Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business.
    3. Brekke, Kurt R. & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2010. "Price and quality in spatial competition," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 471-480, November.
    4. Anderson, Simon P. & Gabszewicz, Jean J., 2006. "The Media and Advertising: A Tale of Two-Sided Markets," Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, in: V.A. Ginsburgh & D. Throsby (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 18, pages 567-614, Elsevier.
    5. Victor Manuel Bennett & Lamar Pierce & Jason A. Snyder & Michael W. Toffel, 2012. "Competition and Illicit Quality," Harvard Business School Working Papers 12-071, Harvard Business School, revised May 2012.
    6. Greg Fischer & Dean Karlan & Margaret McConnell & Pia Raffler, 2014. "To Charge or Not to Charge: Evidence from a Health Products Experiment in Uganda," Working Papers 1041, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    7. Fischer, Greg & Karlan, Dean & McConnell, Margaret & Raffler, Pia, 2019. "Short-term subsidies and seller type: A health products experiment in Uganda," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 110-124.
    8. Bilanakosa, Christos & Heywood, John S. & Sessions, John & Theodoropoulos, Nikolaos, 2017. "Worker Training and Quality Competition," GLO Discussion Paper Series 137, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    9. Mariana Cunha & António Osório & Ricardo Ribeiro, 2016. "Endogenous product design and quality with rationally inattentive consumers," Working Papers de Economia (Economics Working Papers) 03, Católica Porto Business School, Universidade Católica Portuguesa.
    10. Schmidbauer, Eric & Lubensky, Dmitry, 2018. "New and improved?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 26-48.
    11. Rafael López Zorzano & Teodosio Pérez-Amaral & Teresa Garín-Muñoz & Covadonga Gijón Tascón, 2012. "Customer Service Quality and Incomplete Information in Mobile Telecommunications: A Game Theoretical Approach to Consumer Protection," Documentos de Trabajo del ICAE 2012-23, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Instituto Complutense de Análisis Económico.
    12. repec:gbl:wpaper:2013-01 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Grunewald, Andreas & Kräkel, Matthias, 2017. "Advertising as signal jamming," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 91-113.
    14. Eckardt, Martina, 2007. "Does signaling work in markets for information services? An empirical investigation for insurance intermediaries in Germany," Thuenen-Series of Applied Economic Theory 77, University of Rostock, Institute of Economics.
    15. Bilanakos, Christos & Heywood, John S. & Sessions, John & Theodoropoulos, Nikolaos, 2018. "Does demand for product quality increase worker training?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 159-177.
    16. Mireille Chiroleu-Assouline, 2010. "Green Leader or Green Liar? Differentiation and the role of NGOs," Post-Print halshs-00544715, HAL.
    17. Stefan Napel & Gunnar Oldehaver, 2011. "A dynamic perspective on minimum quality standards under Cournot competition," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 29-49, February.
    18. Stefan Napel & Gunnar Oldehaver, 2007. "Static Costs vs. Dynamic Benefits of a Minimum Quality Standard under Cournot Competition," Discussion Papers 23, Aboa Centre for Economics.
    19. Roe, Brian E. & Sheldon, Ian M., 2001. "The Impacts of Labeling on the Production and Trade of Vertically Differentiated Goods with Process Attributes," 2001 Annual meeting, August 5-8, Chicago, IL 20451, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    20. A. Yeşim Orhun & Sriram Venkataraman & Pradeep K. Chintagunta, 2016. "Impact of Competition on Product Decisions: Movie Choices of Exhibitors," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(1), pages 73-92, January.
    21. Jie Bai, 2016. "Melons as Lemons: Asymmetric Information, Consumer Learning and Seller Reputation," Natural Field Experiments 00540, The Field Experiments Website.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • L15 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Information and Product Quality
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20091. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.