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Income gradient of pharmaceutical panic buying at the outbreak of the COVID‐19 pandemic

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  • Péter Elek
  • Anikó Bíró
  • Petra Fadgyas‐Freyler

Abstract

We analyze the timing, magnitude, and income dependence of pharmaceutical panic buying around the outbreak of the COVID‐19 pandemic in Hungary. We use district‐level monthly and daily administrative data on detailed categories of pharmaceutical purchases, merge them to income statistics, and estimate multilevel panel models. Our main results are as follows. First, the days of therapy (DOT) of pharmaceutical purchases increased by more than 30% in March 2020, when major lockdown measures were announced. This pattern holds for almost all categories of pharmaceuticals. Second, shortly after the panic reactions, the aggregate amount of pharmaceutical purchases returned to their preshock levels; however, the frequency of pharmacy visits decreased. Third, the panic buying reaction was significantly stronger in richer geographical areas, where—according to the daily data—people also reacted earlier to the pandemic‐related news. Overall, the results suggest that panic buying of pharmaceuticals can have detrimental effects on vulnerable populations.

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  • Péter Elek & Anikó Bíró & Petra Fadgyas‐Freyler, 2021. "Income gradient of pharmaceutical panic buying at the outbreak of the COVID‐19 pandemic," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(9), pages 2312-2320, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:30:y:2021:i:9:p:2312-2320
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.4378
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    2. Francesca Marazzi & Andrea Piano Mortari & Federico Belotti & Giuseppe Carrà & Ciro Cattuto & Joanna Kopinska & Daniela Paolotti & Vincenzo Atella, 2022. "Staying Strong, But For How Long? Mental Health During COVID-19 in Italy," CEIS Research Paper 541, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 26 Apr 2022.
    3. Di Novi, Cinzia & Leporatti, Lucia & Levaggi, Rosella & Montefiori, Marcello, 2022. "Adherence during COVID-19: The role of aging and socio-economics status in shaping drug utilization," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 1-14.
    4. Steven Buigut and Burcu Kapar, 2022. "Do COVID-19 Incidence and Government Intervention Influence Media Indices?," Bulletin of Applied Economics, Risk Market Journals, vol. 9(2), pages 79-100.
    5. Justyna Rogowska & Agnieszka Zimmermann, 2022. "Household Pharmaceutical Waste Disposal as a Global Problem—A Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-29, November.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality

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