Deck 2: Demand and Supply

Question 1

The demand for cosmetic surgery is more elastic than the demand for Botox treatments.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

A person is willing to pay $50 per visit for physical therapy, but she pays $35 per visit. This person receives a consumer surplus of $85 per visit.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

The Water-Diamonds Paradox is illustrated when water, which is essential for life, trades at a higher price than diamonds, which are not essential for life.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Potential health benefits of eating organic versus non-organic food have been often discussed in mass media. Though the scientific evidence of such benefits remains inconclusive, many consumers would consider switching to organic food; however, it is priced considerably higher. It can be projected that if the overall price level of organic foods goes down substantially, the demand for non-organic foods will decrease.

Question 5

Consider the following scenario. A pharmaceutical company has spent 230 million dollars developing and testing a new drug. The company projects the total revenue from sales to be about 850 million dollars over the course of three years after the drug approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The company is close to the completion of the research phase, when they learn that a competing drug has entered the market. Sales projections have been downgraded to 150 million dollars. An investment of an additional 9 million dollars would be required to complete the research and obtain the FDA approval, if the company decides to do so. The cost of producing actual pills, after the research phase is complete, will be close to zero and can be ignored for simplicity. The best advice for this company would be to abandon the production of this drug.

Question 6

The market demand curve for aspirin

A) is measured at a specific time and place.
B) is comprised of all the individual demand curves.
C) is a marginal benefit curve.
D) slopes downward because the benefit from the tenth aspirin is much less than the benefit from the first aspirin.
E) all of the above.

Question 7

Consider the following scenario. A local pharmacy puts a popular brand of over-the-counter allergy medication, a 30-tablet pack, on sale at 30% off for a week. The quantity of that medication sold during that week (the number of 30-tablet packs), was 27% higher than the week before. The value of the price elasticity of demand for that allergy medication in this particular market is ___________ and demand can be considered _____________.

A) 9/10; inelastic
B) 10/9; inelastic
C) 3%; elastic
D) 27%; elastic
E) 57%; unit elastic

Question 8

A podiatrist fits about 45 patients per week with new orthotic shoe inserts. She finds that by reducing the price of a follow-up visit from $30 to $20, the number of patients returning for a follow-up visit increases from 15 to 25. Further reducing the price from $20 to $5 increases the number of follow-up visits to 30.

A) Marginal revenue generated by the price reduction from $30 to $20 is -50.
B) Marginal revenue generated by the price reduction from $20 to $5 is 350.
C) In order to maximize profits, the best decision for this podiatrist is to reduce the price to $5, as this will result in the largest increase in demand.
D) In order to maximize profits, the best decision for this podiatrist is to reduce the price to $20, as this will result in the largest total revenue.
E) It is impossible to determine which price level would maximize profits for this podiatrist, as information about costs is not available.

Question 9

Price elasticity measures the:

A) change in quantity per unit change in price.
B) change in price per unit change in quantity.
C) percentage change in quantity for each 1% change in price.
D) price sensitivity when quantity purchased changes.
E) quantity divided by price.

Question 10

If my dentist decides to lower the price of teeth whitening treatments, total sales (revenues) for treatments will go up if:

A) excess supply for teeth whitening services exists.
B) price elasticity is less than one.
C) price elasticity is greater than one.
D) excess demand for teeth whitening services exists.
E) price elasticity of demand has changed.

Question 11

Price discrimination

A) is an unethical way physicians charge wealthier patients more than other patients.
B) occurs when the federal government gives fewer funds for Medicaid programs to higher income states.
C) is easily practiced when goods and services can be purchased at lower prices and resold at higher prices.
D) is only practiced by monopolists.

Question 12

Health economists observe individuals' willingness to pay by observing not only cash transactions, but also by observing patients' time spent waiting and/or pain endured to obtain medical services. Examples of observable, non-cash prices paid by patients include all of the following, except

A) a caretaker waits nine months for a family member to receive nursing home care.
B) a patient undergoes experimental cancer vaccine to arrest the growth of a tumor.
C) a patient pays another patient $50 to trade places in the queue at the free clinic.
D) an elderly patient waits eight hours to see a doctor for free at a famous eye clinic.
E) a morbidly obese patient must undergo six months of nutrition counseling prior to undergoing surgery to induce weight loss.

Question 13

A supply curve does all the following, except

A) uses the Ceteris Paribus assumption.
B) holds constant time, place, income, cost of inputs, cost of substitutes, and suppliers' expectations about future prices.
C) shows quantity producers are willing and able to supply at each price.
D) shows consumers' marginal benefit for each unit produced.
E) shows suppliers' marginal cost of each unit produced.

Question 14

Consider the following scenario. A pharmaceutical company has spent 230 million dollars developing and testing a new drug. The company projects the total revenue from sales to be about 850 million dollars over the course of three years after the drug approval by the FDA. The company is close to the completion of the research phase, when they learn that a competing drug has entered the market. Sales projections have been downgraded to 150 million dollars. An investment of an additional 9 million dollars would be required to complete the research and obtain the FDA approval, if the company decides to do so. The cost of producing actual pills, after the research phase is complete, will be close to zero and can be ignored for simplicity. The company should complete the research and launch production of this drug only if the required additional investment does not exceed

A) 3 million dollars.
B) 9 million dollars.
C) 150 million dollars.
D) 230 million dollars.
E) 850 million dollars.

Question 15

The Principle of Diminishing Marginal Returns means

A) the more a good is consumed, the lower the average benefit from consumption.
B) the more of a good that is produced, the greater the benefit of the last good to the supplier.
C) the less of a good that is produced, the greater the average productivity of inputs.
D) The more of a good that is produced, the lower the productivity of the last input to production.
E) the more of a good that is produced, the greater the marginal productivity of the last input.

Question 16

Scientific evidence suggests that nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) can be considered as substitutes in providing many types of medical care. When hospitals take hiring decisions, the "price" (i.e. salaries) they have to pay for a new NP versus a new PA is one of the deciding factors. If PAs' salaries have grown substantially during the last 6 months, while there has been no change in the NPs' salaries, what would happen in the market for nurse practitioners' services?

A) Supply of NPs to hospitals will increase.
B) Supply of NPs to hospitals will decrease.
C) Hospitals' demand for NPs will increase.
D) Hospitals' demand for NPs will decrease.
E) The increase in the salaries of PAs should have no effect on hospitals' demand for or supply of nurse practitioners' services.

Question 17

The production of health can be viewed as a function of several inputs. Empirical evidence suggests that

A) medical care is the most important input to health outcomes in the past 150 years.
B) environmental, heredity and per capita income are more important factors than medical care in improving health outcomes in the past 150 years.
C) increased health care spending in the U.S. is possible without transferring scarce resources away from other areas.
D) individuals have little control over personal choices such as exercising and avoiding smoking cigarettes.
E) the demand for health is a derived demand.

Question 18

Listed below are possible ways to improve the nation's health status, except

A) increasing spending on medical care.
B) relaxing the environmental pollution standards.
C) paying for college education for children from low income families.
D) incentivizing consumers to participate in wellness programs, such as weight-loss plans.
E) provide government rebates to consumers for purchasing environmentally friendly vehicles.

Question 19

The need for medical care and the demand for medical care

A) are never the same.
B) depend on the perspective of physicians, patients, and third party payers.
C) are the same when third party payers, such as insurance companies, agree to pay for the services doctors recommend.
D) can both be limited by government action.
E) can both be limited by increased income.

Question 20

Achieving economic efficiency in the market for hospital emergency room services differs from the perfectly competitive model because:

A) making dynamic technological advances means that some current efficiency must be sacrificed.
B) management of personnel and technological inputs must be made in the face of certainty about medical outcomes.
C) issues of access to services only matter in the perfectly competitive model.
D) demand for emergency room care is highly elastic.
E) cost minimization efforts might conflict with broader societal goals of compassion and palliative care in the emergency room.

Question 21

Professional evaluations are required to assess an individual patient's _______ for medical care while observations of _______ enable economists to determine a demand curve for medical care services.

Question 22

Despite the empirical evidence that _______ is not the most important determinant of an individual's health, much of the focus of health economics studies is concentrated on _______ because individuals have very little control over other inputs to health such as _______.

Question 23

Costs to individuals such as pain, risk of death and time spent waiting for a procedure are considered _______ of a treatment to patients and provide no benefit to health care providers.

Question 24

A physician takes a 20 hour per week position at the local hospital. She has two preschool age children and regularly turns down overtime work at $250 per hour. Economists calculate the opportunity cost of one hour of time spent outside work as equal to a minimum of _______ per hour.

Question 25

A physical therapy treatment can use a high tech machine to massage patients or a certified massage therapist. If the cost of the machine per unit of service is $100 and the cost of the therapist per unit of service is $50, then the health care provider faces a trade-off of _______ units of labor for each _______ unit of capital.

Question 26

Why is it easier to measure the effects of smoking on individual's health than it is to measure the effects of anti-smoking campaigns on health? Be sure to discuss the idea of medical care as derived demand.

Question 27

Use the concepts of management and economic efficiency to explain why a hospital does not charge more for an MRI performed during an emergency room visit than it does for an MRI performed on a scheduled basis.

Question 28

Explain why purchasing an eye examination and a new pair of eyeglasses is much closer to the ceteris paribus assumptions of a perfectly competitive market than the purchase of an appendectomy.

Question 29

Licensure of physicians means that to some extent, the supply of physicians can be viewed as a vertical line. Explain what this means for the price of physician services. Which factors might change the shape and position of the supply curve for physicians over time?

Question 30

The number of large US employers offering wellness programs to their employees has been steadily increasing over the years. Weight management, nutrition, fitness, and/or other wellness initiatives are now being offered by more than half of such employers. Use the concept of determinants of health to discuss the reasoning behind this trend. What do the employers expect to gain from this additional expense? Compare short-run versus long-run gains, private versus societal gains.