Health insurance expansion and academic production: The case of Medicare Part D legislation

Guanting Yi

Social Science & Medicine, 2025, vol. 367, issue C

Abstract: Understanding how market demand influences academic research is crucial for comprehending the innovation process and informing policy decisions. This study examines the impact of the 2003 Medicare Part D legislation on biomedical journal article production across diseases. Using a difference-in-differences framework, together with a sample of over 2 million original research articles published between 1987 and 2015 sourced from PubMed database, I find a relatively 18.5% increase in academic publications on diseases more common among Medicare beneficiaries, indicating responsiveness to market demand. Further analysis shows that non-government funding significantly contributed to this increase. However, these additional publications tend to be of lower quality, as measured by citations, patent citations, and journal impact factors. This suggests a trade-off between the quantity and quality of research outputs. Overall, this paper highlights how market demand influences academic production, demonstrating that healthcare policy changes, such as Medicare Part D, can spur academic research output and reshape research focus. Policymakers should consider these spillover effects to balance research quantity and quality while ensuring equitable benefits.

Keywords: Medicare Part D; Academic production; Research publication; Market demand (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I13 I18 O31 O38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117696

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