IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/hlthec/v14y2005i4p421-428.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Parametric modelling of cost data: some simulation evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew Briggs
  • Richard Nixon
  • Simon Dixon
  • Simon Thompson

Abstract

Recently, commentators have suggested that the distributional form of cost data should be explicitly modelled to gain efficiency in estimating the population mean. We perform a series of simulation experiments to evaluate the usual sample mean and the mean estimator of a lognormal distribution, in the context of both theoretical distributions and three large empirical datasets. The sample mean is always unbiased, but is somewhat less efficient when the population distribution is truly lognormal. However the lognormal estimator can perform appallingly when the true distribution is not lognormal. In practical situations, where the true distribution is unknown, the sample mean generally remains the estimator of choice, especially when limited sample size prohibits detailed modelling of the cost data distribution. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew Briggs & Richard Nixon & Simon Dixon & Simon Thompson, 2005. "Parametric modelling of cost data: some simulation evidence," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(4), pages 421-428, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:14:y:2005:i:4:p:421-428
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.941
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.941
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/hec.941?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Manning, Willard G, et al, 1987. "Health Insurance and the Demand for Medical Care: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(3), pages 251-277, June.
    2. Mullahy, John, 1998. "Much ado about two: reconsidering retransformation and the two-part model in health econometrics," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 247-281, June.
    3. John Mullahy, 1998. "Much Ado About Two: Reconsidering Retransformation and the Two-Part Model in Health Economics," NBER Technical Working Papers 0228, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Marks R. Nester, 1996. "An Applied Statistician's Creed," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 45(4), pages 401-410, December.
    5. Partha Deb & James F. Burgess, Jr., 2003. "A Quasi-experimental Comparison of Econometric Models for Health Care Expenditures," Economics Working Paper Archive at Hunter College 212, Hunter College Department of Economics.
    6. Zhou, Xiao-Hua & Tu, Wanzhu, 2000. "Interval estimation for the ratio in means of log-normally distributed medical costs with zero values," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 201-210, December.
    7. Duan, Naihua, et al, 1983. "A Comparison of Alternative Models for the Demand for Medical Care," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 1(2), pages 115-126, April.
    8. Manning, Willard G. & Mullahy, John, 2001. "Estimating log models: to transform or not to transform?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 461-494, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Andrew R. Willan & Simon Eckermann, 2012. "Accounting For Between‐Study Variation In Incremental Net Benefit In Value Of Information Methodology," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(10), pages 1183-1195, October.
    2. Edward C. F. Wilson & Miranda Mugford & Garry Barton & Lee Shepstone, 2016. "Efficient Research Design," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 36(3), pages 335-348, April.
    3. Andrew Willan, 2011. "Sample Size Determination for Cost-Effectiveness Trials," PharmacoEconomics, Springer, vol. 29(11), pages 933-949, November.
    4. Jasjeet Singh Sekhon & Richard D. Grieve, 2012. "A matching method for improving covariate balance in cost‐effectiveness analyses," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(6), pages 695-714, June.
    5. Zou, Guang Yong & Taleban, Julia & Huo, Cindy Y., 2009. "Confidence interval estimation for lognormal data with application to health economics," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 53(11), pages 3755-3764, September.
    6. Daniel P Beavers & James D Stamey, 2018. "Bayesian sample size determination for cost-effectiveness studies with censored data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(1), pages 1-16, January.
    7. Jones, A.M, 2010. "Models For Health Care," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 10/01, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    8. Anne Prenzler & Bernd Bokemeyer & J.-Matthias Schulenburg & Thomas Mittendorf, 2011. "Health care costs and their predictors of inflammatory bowel diseases in Germany," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 12(3), pages 273-283, June.
    9. Andrew M. Jones & James Lomas & Nigel Rice, 2014. "Applying Beta‐Type Size Distributions To Healthcare Cost Regressions," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(4), pages 649-670, June.
    10. Zhao, Xiaobing & Zhou, Xian, 2012. "Estimation of medical costs by copula models with dynamic change of health status," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 480-491.
    11. Manuel Gomes & Richard Grieve & Richard Nixon & W. J. Edmunds, 2012. "Statistical Methods for Cost-Effectiveness Analyses That Use Data from Cluster Randomized Trials," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 32(1), pages 209-220, January.
    12. C. Elizabeth McCarron & Eleanor M. Pullenayegum & Lehana Thabane & Ron Goeree & Jean-Eric Tarride, 2013. "The Impact of Using Informative Priors in a Bayesian Cost-Effectiveness Analysis," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 33(3), pages 437-450, April.
    13. Yuan, Jun & Ng, Szu Hui & Sou, Weng Sut, 2016. "Uncertainty quantification of CO2 emission reduction for maritime shipping," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 113-130.
    14. Paul C. Lambert & Lucinda J. Billingham & Nicola J. Cooper & Alex J. Sutton & Keith R. Abrams, 2008. "Estimating the cost‐effectiveness of an intervention in a clinical trial when partial cost information is available: a Bayesian approach," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(1), pages 67-81, January.
    15. Richard M. Nixon & David Wonderling & Richard D. Grieve, 2010. "Non‐parametric methods for cost‐effectiveness analysis: the central limit theorem and the bootstrap compared," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(3), pages 316-333, March.
    16. Edmond S.-W. Ng & Richard Grieve & James R. Carpenter, 2013. "Two-stage nonparametric bootstrap sampling with shrinkage correction for clustered data," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 13(1), pages 141-164, March.
    17. Zhao, Xiaobing & Zhou, Xian, 2009. "Semiparametric modeling of medical cost data containing zeros," Statistics & Probability Letters, Elsevier, vol. 79(9), pages 1207-1214, May.
    18. Claudia Geue & James Lewsey & Paula Lorgelly & Lindsay Govan & Carole Hart & Andrew Briggs, 2012. "Spoilt For Choice: Implications Of Using Alternative Methods Of Costing Hospital Episode Statistics," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(10), pages 1201-1216, October.
    19. Manuel Gomes & Edmond S.-W. Ng & Richard Grieve & Richard Nixon & James Carpenter & Simon G. Thompson, 2012. "Developing Appropriate Methods for Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Cluster Randomized Trials," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 32(2), pages 350-361, March.
    20. Mohamed El Alili & Johanna M. Dongen & Keith S. Goldfeld & Martijn W. Heymans & Maurits W. Tulder & Judith E. Bosmans, 2020. "Taking the Analysis of Trial-Based Economic Evaluations to the Next Level: The Importance of Accounting for Clustering," PharmacoEconomics, Springer, vol. 38(11), pages 1247-1261, November.
    21. Caterina Conigliani & Andrea Tancredi, 2009. "A Bayesian model averaging approach for cost‐effectiveness analyses," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(7), pages 807-821, July.
    22. Borislava Mihaylova & Andrew Briggs & Anthony O'Hagan & Simon G. Thompson, 2011. "Review of statistical methods for analysing healthcare resources and costs," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(8), pages 897-916, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Giampiero Marra & Matteo Fasiolo & Rosalba Radice & Rainer Winkelmann, 2023. "A flexible copula regression model with Bernoulli and Tweedie margins for estimating the effect of spending on mental health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(6), pages 1305-1322, June.
    2. Jay Dev Dubey, 2021. "Measuring Income Elasticity of Healthcare-Seeking Behavior in India: A Conditional Quantile Regression Approach," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 19(4), pages 767-793, December.
    3. Besstremyannaya, Galina, 2017. "Measuring income equity in the demand for healthcare with finite mixture models," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 46, pages 5-29.
    4. Manos Matsaganis & Theodore Mitrakos & Panos Tsakloglou, 2009. "Modelling health expenditure at the household level in Greece," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 10(3), pages 329-336, July.
    5. Randall P. Ellis & Pooja G. Mookim, 2013. "K-Fold Cross-Validation is Superior to Split Sample Validation for Risk Adjustment Models," Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series wp2013-026, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    6. Borislava Mihaylova & Andrew Briggs & Anthony O'Hagan & Simon G. Thompson, 2011. "Review of statistical methods for analysing healthcare resources and costs," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(8), pages 897-916, August.
    7. Buntin, Melinda Beeuwkes & Zaslavsky, Alan M., 2004. "Too much ado about two-part models and transformation?: Comparing methods of modeling Medicare expenditures," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 525-542, May.
    8. Deb, Partha & Trivedi, Pravin K., 2002. "The structure of demand for health care: latent class versus two-part models," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 601-625, July.
    9. Carole Roan Gresenz & Jeanette A. Rogowski & Jose Escarce, 2004. "Healthcare Markets, the Safety Net and Access to Care Among the Uninsured," NBER Working Papers 10799, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Partha Deb & Murat K. Munkin & Pravin K. Trivedi, 2006. "Bayesian analysis of the two‐part model with endogeneity: application to health care expenditure," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(7), pages 1081-1099, November.
    11. Keane, Michael & Stavrunova, Olena, 2016. "Adverse selection, moral hazard and the demand for Medigap insurance," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 190(1), pages 62-78.
    12. Kurt Lavetti & Thomas DeLeire & Nicolas R. Ziebarth, 2023. "How do low‐income enrollees in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces respond to cost‐sharing?," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 90(1), pages 155-183, March.
    13. C. GEAY & M. KOUBI & G. de LAGASNERIE, 2015. "Evolution of outpatient healthcare expenditure, a dynamic micro-simulation using the Destinie model," Documents de Travail de l'Insee - INSEE Working Papers g2015-15, Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques.
    14. Heres-Del-Valle, David & Niemeier, Deb, 2011. "CO2 emissions: Are land-use changes enough for California to reduce VMT? Specification of a two-part model with instrumental variables," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 150-161, January.
    15. Manning, Willard G. & Mullahy, John, 2001. "Estimating log models: to transform or not to transform?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 461-494, July.
    16. Dunn, Abe, 2016. "Health insurance and the demand for medical care: Instrumental variable estimates using health insurer claims data," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 74-88.
    17. Hao Yu, 2017. "China’s medical savings accounts: an analysis of the price elasticity of demand for health care," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 18(6), pages 773-785, July.
    18. Cantoni, Eva & Ronchetti, Elvezio, 2006. "A robust approach for skewed and heavy-tailed outcomes in the analysis of health care expenditures," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 198-213, March.
    19. Liu, Lei & Conaway, Mark R. & Knaus, William A. & Bergin, James D., 2008. "A random effects four-part model, with application to correlated medical costs," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 52(9), pages 4458-4473, May.
    20. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/5cg3fnvgpv8u5peaglp6lrkkaq is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Basu, A & Polsky, D & Manning, W G, 2008. "Use of propensity scores in non-linear response models: The case for health care expenditures," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 08/11, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:14:y:2005:i:4:p:421-428. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/5749 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.