This department collection focuses on high-quality empirical and theoretical research on the organization, financing, and performance of healthcare delivery and insurance systems. The collection covers hospitals, physicians, and other providers, as well as public and private insurance markets.

The department welcomes contributions analyzing provider payment mechanisms and other incentives and their implications for provider behavior, resource allocation, cost containment, quality of care, access, efficiency, and health outcomes. It encourages rigorous work examining provider competition, market structure, vertical integration, and the design of financing schemes as well as research on supply-side health interventions and system-level reforms.

The department also invites analyses of insurance market dynamics, including adverse selection, risk selection, moral hazard, and the interaction between insurance design and provider incentives. Both reduced-form and structural empirical studies, as well as formal theoretical models, are within scope.

By advancing evidence and theory on how incentives operate across providers and insurers, the department aims to inform policy debates on sustainable, equitable, and high-performing health systems.

Potential topics

• Organization, financing, and performance of healthcare delivery and insurance systems
• Hospitals, physicians, and other healthcare providers
• Public and private insurance markets
• Provider payment mechanisms and incentives
• Provider behavior, resource allocation, cost containment, quality of care, access, efficiency, and health outcomes
• Provider competition, market structure, and vertical integration
• Design of financing schemes
• Supply-side health interventions and system-level reforms
• Insurance market dynamics including adverse selection, risk selection, and moral hazard
• Interaction between insurance design and provider incentives
• Reduced-form and structural empirical studies
• Formal theoretical models

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Contributions apply microeconometric methods to the analysis of the economics of prevention, health behaviors, and equity. In particular, these concern the study of lifestyle choices, the demand for health care, or more specific topics such as vaccination uptake, risk preferences, or health literacy.

From a methodological perspective, submissions especially encourage the employment of modern tools of causal inference and exploitation of behavioral interventions, public health programs, or other policy measures.

Submissions should mainly examine individual decision-making in well-defined institutional or policy contexts and aim to generate insights that are relevant both academically and for policy.

Potential topics

• Microeconometric methods applied to the economics of prevention, health behaviors, and equity
• Lifestyle choices and demand for health care
• Vaccination uptake and risk preferences
• Health literacy studies
• Causal inference methods in health economics
• Behavioral interventions and public health programs
• Policy measures evaluation
• Individual decision-making in institutional and policy contexts

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Contributions present research on how health innovations are developed, evaluated, adopted, and scaled across settings and globally - including pharmaceuticals/biotech, medical devices, diagnostics, digital health and AI, and organizational/service innovations - using economic and behavioral approaches.

Topics include innovation incentives and market design; regulation, pricing/reimbursement and procurement; IP, competition and entry; evidence generation and clinical trials; and economic evaluation/HTA, particularly where it informs innovation, value, adoption, and real-world implementation.

Contributions also present research on behavioral drivers and barriers to diffusion (e.g., provider prescribing and practice patterns, patient uptake and adherence, trust and information environments, and organizational decision-making) and on data- and platform-driven innovation (algorithms, digital therapeutics, AI-enabled diagnostics, and learning health systems), including work on access, affordability, and public-good innovation models (e.g., open science, platform public goods, and innovations for underserved populations).

Potential topics

• Innovation incentives and market design
• Regulation, pricing/reimbursement and procurement
• IP, competition and entry
• Evidence generation and clinical trials
• Economic evaluation and HTA
• Behavioral drivers and barriers to diffusion including provider prescribing patterns, patient uptake and adherence, trust and information environments
• Organizational decision-making
• Data- and platform-driven innovation including algorithms, digital therapeutics, AI-enabled diagnostics, and learning health systems
• Access and affordability
• Public-good innovation models including open science, platform public goods, and innovations for underserved populations

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Contributions advance the methodology of economic evaluations of health interventions, also in relation to policy decisions. These include studies on the normative foundations of economic evaluations, discounting, spillover effects, equity weighting, disease severity, uncertainty, costing, and valuations of (changes in) health and wellbeing states.

This department is part of The European Journal of Health Economics, which is organized into five departments. Each department focuses on designated key topics in health economics, with articles grouped in its continuously updated Department Collection. When submitting a manuscript, authors are asked to indicate their preferred department by selecting the corresponding topic. The Editor-in-Chief determines whether a submission is desk-rejected or assigned to a department, and, if assigned, which department is most suitable. This department assignment is a prerequisite for, but does not guarantee, the manuscript's progression to peer review.

Potential topics

• Normative foundations of economic evaluations
• Discounting
• Spillover effects
• Equity weighting
• Disease severity
• Uncertainty
• Costing
• Valuations of health and wellbeing states

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Contributions present original economic research on health care in low- and middle-income countries, including work on health insurance, provider and individual health-related behavior, access to care, and policies relevant to the functioning of health care systems. It addresses both immediate policy concerns and structural challenges shaping health system development.

The emphasis is on novel, rigorous quantitative or analytical research with clear policy relevance. Papers that engage with broader questions in health economics of interest to the journal's general readership concerned with economic development are particularly welcome, especially those that use data from specific countries or regions to provide credible and informative answers.

Potential topics

• Health insurance
• Provider and individual health-related behavior
• Access to care
• Policies relevant to the functioning of health care systems
• Economic research on health care in low- and middle-income countries
• Health system development

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