We examine the role of network effects in the demand for pharmaceuticals at both the brand level and for a therapeutic class of drugs. These effects emerge when use of a drug by others conveys information about its efficacy and safety to patients and physicians. This can lead to herd behavior where a particular drug -- not necessarily the most efficacious or safest -- can come to dominate the market despite the availability of close substitutes, and can also affect the rate of market diffusion. Using data for H2-antagonist antiulcer drugs, we examine two aspects of these effects. First, we use hedonic price procedures to estimate how the aggregate usage of a drug affects brand valuation. Second, we estimate discrete-time diffusion models at both the industry and brand levels to measure the impact on rates of diffusion and market saturation.
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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number
7024.
Length: Date of creation: Mar 1999 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:7024
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References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Scharfstein, David. & Stein, Jeremy C., 1988.
"Herd behavior and investment,"
Working papers
WP 2062-88., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
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