Entry of new pharmacies in the deregulated Norwegian pharmaceuticals market--Consequences for costs and availability

Niklas Rudholm

Health Policy, 2008, vol. 87, issue 2, pages 258-263

Abstract: Objectives The objective of this study is to analyze the impact of the new regulation concerning entry of pharmacies into the Norwegian pharmaceuticals market in 2001 on cost and availability of pharmaceutical products.Methods In order to study costs, a translog cost function is estimated using data from the annual reports of a sample of Norwegian pharmacies before and after the deregulation of the market. Linear regression models for the number of pharmacies in each region in Norway are also estimated.Results The results show that the costs of the individual pharmacies have not decreased as a consequence of the deregulation of the Norwegian pharmaceuticals market. The deregulation of the market did, however, increase the availability to pharmacy services substantially.Conclusions Increased availability of pharmacy services can be achieved by deregulating pharmaceutical markets as in Norway, but at the expense of increased costs for the pharmacies.

Date: 2008

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6V8X ... aa43be6c966aeb36b09f
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:87:y:2008:i:2:p:258-263

Access Statistics for this article

Health Policy is edited by Katrien Kesteloot, Mia Defever and Irina Cleemput

More articles in Health Policy from Elsevier
Series data maintained by Heidi Boesdal ().