Social influence and neighbourhood effects in the health care market

Marcello Montefiori and Marina Resta ()

POLIS Working Papers from Institute of Public Policy and Public Choice - POLIS

Abstract: This work is intended to analyze the market for health care through a computational approach based on unsupervised neural networks. The paper provides a theoretical framework for a computational model that relies on Kohonen's self organizing maps (SOM), arranged into two layers: in the upper layer the competition dynamics of health care providers is modelled, whereas in the lower level patients behaviour is monitored. Interactions take place both vertically between the layers (in a bi-directional way), and horizontally, inside each level, exploiting neighbourhood features of SOM: signals move vertically from hospitals to patients and vice-versa, but they also spread out sideward, from patient to patient, and from hospital to hospital. The result is a new approach addressing the issue of hospital behaviour and demand mechanism modelling, which conjugates a robust theoretical implementation together with an instrument of deep graphical impact.

Keywords: self organizing maps; health market; adaptive behaviour; incomplete information; mixed market (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C60 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 21 pages
Date: 2008-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cmp, nep-hea, nep-ias and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uca:ucapdv:98

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