Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/95660 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
IFN Working Paper No. 949
Publisher: 
Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN), Stockholm
Abstract: 
The introduction of antibiotics as a medical treatment after World War II helped to dramatically increase life expectancy in the industrialized world. As a consequence of over-prescription the last decades ave however seen a sharp increase in prevalence of multi-resistant bacteria, disarming once powerful anti-pathogens. This paper investigates the effect of increased competition between healthcare providers on prescription of antibiotics. We make use of a competition- inducing reform implemented in different counties in Sweden at different points in time during 2007 to 2010. Our dataset contains monthly data on all prescribed antibiotics in Sweden which makes us able to estimate the effects on all antibiotics prescribed, as well as different subcategories of antibiotics. The results indicate that increased competition had a positive and significant effect on antibiotics prescription.
Subjects: 
Healthcare
competition
competition reform
antibiotics
JEL: 
C23
H30
I11
I18
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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