Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/107379 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 5166
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
Longitudinal, disease-level data are used to analyze the impact of pharmaceutical innovation on longevity (mean age at death), hospital utilization, and medical expenditure in Greece during the period 1995-2010. The estimates indicate that pharmaceutical innovation increased mean age at death by 0.87 years (10.4 months)- about 44% of the total increase in longevity -and that diseases with larger increases in the cumulative number of drugs launched 1-4 years earlier had smaller increases in the number of hospital days. Real per capita pharmaceutical expenditure increased rapidly during this period, but 62% of the increase in pharmaceutical expenditure was offset by a reduction in hospital expenditure attributable to pharmaceutical innovation. The baseline estimate of the cost per life-year gained from pharmaceutical innovation in Greece is $17,117, which is a very small fraction of leading economists' estimates of the value of (or consumers' willingness to pay for) a one-year increase in life expectancy.
Subjects: 
pharmaceutical
innovation
longevity
Greece
hospital
JEL: 
I12
J11
L65
O33
O52
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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