Health Economics (ECON 452) | 25 Sample Exam Questions on Labor Supply, Cost Shifting, Price Discrimination & Hospital Trends – 2025/2026

This document contains 25 well-structured and fully answered sample multiple-choice questions for Week 5 of the Health Economics course (ECON 452), academic year 2025/2026. It is designed to prepare students for upcoming assessments by covering practical applications of labor economics in healthcare, organizational behavior of hospitals, and major health system reforms from the 19th century to modern times. Core topics include the monopsony labor model, determinants of physician supply, rate of return on medical education, observed geographic variations in care, cost shifting in hospital reimbursement, and price discrimination under market power. The set also covers structural trends such as horizontal integration, outpatient service growth, and the evolution of healthcare financing from Medicare’s introduction to the rise of managed care. The questions are conceptually aligned with health policy analysis, applied microeconomics, and healthcare management principles, making this resource valuable for students in: Health Economics Public Health Health Systems and Policy Hospital Administration Medical Education Economics It is especially relevant to students enrolled in: Undergraduate or graduate Economics programs Master of Public Health (MPH) programs Health Services Research Medical or Pre-Med programs focused on healthcare systems Keywords: physician labor supply, monopsony, hospital economics, rate of return medical education, Medicare, Medicaid, managed care, price discrimination, cost shifting, outpatient trends, horizontal integration, not-for-profit hospitals, healthcare financing, physician control model, regional care variations