IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/umnees/0602.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Uncertainty in the Generic Versus Brand Name Prescription Decision

Author

Listed:
  • Hellström, Jörgen

    (Department of Economics, Umeå University)

  • Rudholm, Niklas

    (Department of Economics, Umeå University)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the impact of uncertainty concerning product quality of generic drugs on the substitution behavior of prescribing physicians. It is shown that uncertainty about the generic drug quality gives the physician a value of waiting for more information before switching to the generic version. In addition, it is shown that reducing the approval requirements for generic drugs, thereby increasing uncertainty about quality, may discourage physicians from prescribing such drugs. A small empirical study supports the theoretical findings and indicate that uncertainty about the quality of generic drugs do affect physician prescription behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Hellström, Jörgen & Rudholm, Niklas, 2003. "Uncertainty in the Generic Versus Brand Name Prescription Decision," Umeå Economic Studies 602, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:umnees:0602
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econ.umu.se/DownloadAsset.action?contentId=72829&languageId=3&assetKey=ues602
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, April.
    2. Avinash K. Dixit & Robert S. Pindyck, 1994. "Investment under Uncertainty," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 5474.
    3. Hartley, K & Lavers, R J & Maynard, A K, 1986. "Regulation and Development Times in the U.K. Pharmaceutical Industry," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 33(4), pages 355-369, November.
    4. Robert McDonald & Daniel Siegel, 1986. "The Value of Waiting to Invest," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 101(4), pages 707-727.
    5. Newey, Whitney & West, Kenneth, 2014. "A simple, positive semi-definite, heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation consistent covariance matrix," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 33(1), pages 125-132.
    6. Thomas Aronsson & Mats Bergman & Niklas Rudholm, 2001. "The Impact of Generic Drug Competition on Brand Name Market Shares – Evidence from Micro Data," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 19(4), pages 423-433, December.
    7. Fiona M. Scott Morton, 1999. "Entry Decisions in the Generic Pharmaceutical Industry," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 30(3), pages 421-440, Autumn.
    8. Fiona M. Scott Morton, 1999. "Entry Decisions in the Generic Pharmaceutical Industry," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm119, Yale School of Management.
    9. Fiona Scott Morton, 1997. "The Objectives of the FDA's Office of Generic Drugs," NBER Working Papers 6143, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Michael Spence, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(3), pages 355-374.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Oscar Gutiérrez & Francisco Ruiz-Aliseda, 2011. "Real options with unknown-date events," Annals of Finance, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 171-198, May.
    2. Billette de Villemeur, Etienne & Ruble, Richard & Versaevel, Bruno, 2014. "Investment timing and vertical relationships," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 110-123.
    3. Joan Costa-i-Font & Alistair McGuire & Nebibe Varol, 2011. "Does Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Affect the Adoption of Generic Competition? Evidence from the OECD, 1999-2008," CESifo Working Paper Series 3441, CESifo.
    4. Pawlina, G. & Kort, P.M., 2001. "Strategic Capital Budgeting : Asset Replacement Under Uncertainty," Discussion Paper 2001-4, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    5. Niklas Rudholm, 2003. "Competition and substitutability in the Swedish pharmaceuticals market," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(14), pages 1609-1617.
    6. Enrico Pennings, 2004. "Optimal Pricing And Quality Choice When Investment In Quality Is Irreversible," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(4), pages 569-589, December.
    7. Magalhães de Oliveira, Gustavo & Sellare, Jorge & Cisneros, Elias, Börner, Jan & Börner, Jan, 2024. "Mind your language: Political signaling and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon," Discussion Papers 333334, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    8. Aidan Hollis, 2003. "The Anti-Competitive Effects of Brand-Controlled "Pseudo- Generics" in the Canadian Pharmaceutical Market," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 29(1), pages 21-31, March.
    9. Hassan, Shakill, 2006. "Optimal timing of defections from price-setting cartels in volatile markets," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 792-804, September.
    10. Roberto Felici & Marcello Pagnini, 2008. "Distance, Bank Heterogeneity And Entry In Local Banking Markets," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 500-534, September.
    11. Iván Moreno-Torres & Jaume Puig-Junoy & Joan-Ramon Borrell, 2009. "Generic Entry into the Regulated Spanish Pharmaceutical Market," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 34(4), pages 373-388, June.
    12. Bhamra, Harjoat S. & Shim, Kyung Hwan, 2017. "Stochastic idiosyncratic cash flow risk and real options: Implications for stock returns," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 400-431.
    13. Jörgen Hellström & Niklas Rudholm, 2010. "Uncertainty in the generic versus brand name prescription decision," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 503-521, June.
    14. van den Goorbergh, R.W.J., 2004. "Essays on optimal hedging and investment strategies and on derivative pricing," Other publications TiSEM 4b4b16af-8621-463f-bbfa-0, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    15. Gwangheon Hong & Sudipto Sarkar, 2007. "Equity Systematic Risk (Beta) and Its Determinants," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(2), pages 423-466, June.
    16. Dimitrios Zormpas, 2017. "How vertical relationships and external funding affect investment efficiency and timing?," 2017 Papers pzo81, Job Market Papers.
    17. Chiah, Mardy & Phan, Dinh Hoang Bach & Tran, Vuong Thao & Zhong, Angel, 2022. "Energy price uncertainty and the value premium," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    18. Yi-Wen Tsai & Yu-Wen Wen & Weng-Foung Huang & Ken Kuo & Pei-Fen Chen & Hsin-Wei Shih & Yue-Chune Lee, 2010. "Pharmaceutical penetration of new drug and pharmaceutical market structure in Taiwan: hospital-level prescription of thiazolidinediones for diabetes," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 11(3), pages 279-290, June.
    19. Costa-Font, Joan & McGuire, Alistair & Varol, Nebibe, 2014. "Price regulation and relative delays in generic drug adoption," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 1-9.
    20. Hattori, Keisuke & Yamada, Mai, 2020. "Welfare Implications of Sequential Entry with Heterogeneous Firms," MPRA Paper 103422, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Pharmaceutical industry; uncertainty; real options;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • L65 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Chemicals; Rubber; Drugs; Biotechnology; Plastics

    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:hhs:umnees:0602. 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: David Skog (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inumuse.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.