Informing the uninformed: How drug advertising affects check-up visits

Daniel Hosken and Brett Wendling

International Journal of Industrial Organization, 2013, vol. 31, issue 2, 181-194

Abstract: Direct-to-consumer drug advertising has recently become an important and controversial component of drug marketing. In this paper we examine one of the claimed benefits of drug advertising: encouraging the undiagnosed to seek out medical treatment. We measure how advertising affects an undiagnosed individual's decision to visit a physician for a check-up using detailed person-level panel data on more than 30,000 individuals from the Medical Care Expenditure Panel Survey. We find drug advertising is an important determinant of an individual's decision to get a check-up and that this effect of drug advertising appears to differ by demographic group. While the differences between demographic groups are not statistically different, our point estimates suggest that Blacks and the highly educated are the most responsive to drug advertising.

Keywords: Advertising; Pharmaceutical; Healthcare; Health insurance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I11 I18 L15 L65 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:indorg:v:31:y:2013:i:2:p:181-194

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijindorg.2010.11.006

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