Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: Empirical Tests of Asymmetric Information in the Pharmaceutical Retail Market

该奖项资助博士候选人Anne Fitzpatrick在Rebecca Thornton博士的指导下进行的研究。该项目旨在确定药品零售商在假药销售中的作用。这项研究将确定零售商是否知道他们的库存中哪些药品是假冒的，以及他们是否可以做出不同的购买决策，避免购买假冒库存。这项研究包括在一个疟疾是严重公共卫生问题的地区，对500多家销售抗疟疾药物的药商进行几轮数据收集。审计研究将确定假药的普遍程度，以及供应商是否意识到他们在销售假药；为了达到这个目的，这项研究将匿名购物者的购买与那些宣布将进行质量检测的购物者的购买进行了比较。还将进行随机对照试验；这项试验将测试一项激励计划的效果，该计划鼓励零售商避免假冒产品。经济理论预测激励方案会产生预期的效果，因此该项目也检验了卖家提供优质产品激励的关键假设。该项目的更广泛影响来自于研究结果的最终使用。该项目可能会产生一种可行的解决方案，以遏制世界范围内假冒药品的销售。

This award funds research conducted by doctoral candidate Anne Fitzpatrick under the guidance of Dr. Rebecca Thornton. The project seeks to determine the role of pharmaceutical retailers in the sale of counterfeit drugs. The research will ascertain whether retailers know which drugs within their stock are counterfeit, and whether they can make different purchasing decisions and avoid purchasing counterfeit stock.The research includes several rounds of data collection at over 500 drug vendors that sell anti-malarial drugs in an area where malaria is a serious public health problem. An audit study will determine the prevalence of counterfeit drugs and whether or not the vendors are aware they are selling counterfeits; the study achieves this goal by comparing purchases from anonymous shoppers to purchases from shoppers who announce that their purchases will subjected to quality testing. A randomized controlled trial will be conducted as well; this trial will test the effects of an incentive scheme that gives the retailers incentives to avoid counterfeits. Economic theory predicts that the incentive scheme will have the desired effect, so the project also tests key hypotheses about seller incentives to provide quality products.The broader impact of the project comes from the eventual use of the research results. The project could result in a workable solution to curb the worldwide sale of counterfeit pharmaceuticals.