The RAND Corp. has given its first Victor R. Fuchs Research Award to three researchers from Carnegie Mellon University in Oakland for publishing the paper with the best potential for spawning new research in an undeveloped area of health economics or health policy.
The $10,000 prize went to Martin Gaynor, William B.Vogt and Jian Li of Carnegie Mellon and the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Mass. Their paper, published in Forum for Health Economics & Policy, is titled "Substitution, Spending Offsets, and Prescription Drug Benefit Design."
The study found that increases in drug co-payments caused people to cut their use of prescription drugs, but that consumers increased their use of other types of medical care as a substitute for prescription drugs.
