Kushman, John E., and Richard M. Scheffler. 1978. "Pricing Health Services: Verification of the Monopoly Pricing Model for Dentists." Journal of Human Resources 13(3):402-415.

A model of monopoly with constant marginal costs is used to derive a price function for dental services. The implications of the model are tested using data on individual practitioners from a national survey. The implications of the model are met by the data, providing strong evidence of the appropriateness of the monopoly model to analyses of the market for dental services. The empirical evidence also provides substantial information on the determinants of dental fees.

Kushman is Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics, University of California, Davis. Scheffler is Associate Professor of Economics, George Washington University, and Scholar-in-Residence, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences. The research reported in this paper was supported in part by a Faculty Research Grant from the University of California and by Grant No. HS01970 from the National Center for Health Services Research, HRA. We are grateful to the editor and two anonymous referees for instructive comments on a previous draft. Giannini Foundation Research Paper No. 497.

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