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

该奖项资助博士生安妮·菲茨帕特里克在丽贝卡·桑顿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角色。这项研究将确定零售商是否知道他们库存的哪些药物是假药，以及他们是否可以做出不同的购买决定，避免购买假货。这项研究包括对500多家在疟疾是严重公共卫生问题的地区销售抗疟疾药物的药商进行了几轮数据收集。一项审计研究将确定假药的流行度，以及供应商是否意识到他们在销售假药；这项研究通过比较匿名购物者和宣布他们的购买将接受质量检测的购物者的购买来实现这一目标。还将进行随机对照试验；这项试验将测试激励计划的效果，该激励计划给零售商提供避免假货的激励。经济学理论预测激励方案将产生预期的效果，因此该项目还检验了关于卖方激励提供优质产品的关键假设，该项目的更广泛影响来自于研究成果的最终使用。该项目可能会产生一个可行的解决方案，以遏制假药在全球的销售。

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.