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Lecture/Presentation/Talk

The Tragedy of the Commons in Emergency Medical Service

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Co-sponsored by Peking University Institute for Global Health and Development, and the Asia Health Policy Program

We study a commons problem in the context of the emergency ambulance service in Tokyo. Emergency ambulance service is free in Japan, and no one is excluded from using it. Because capacity is limited, individually rational ambulance use may delay the use by others, lowering the chance of survival. The Fire Department urges the proper use of ambulances to save lives that can be saved, but little is known about the extent of the negative consumption externality. In this paper, we first estimate how one's ambulance use affects others with respect to arrival delays and survival rates. Then, we analyze the impact of potential remedies that alter non-excludability and rivalry in ambulance use.
 

Toshi Iizuka is Professor at Graduate School of Economics, the University of Tokyo. His research interests are in the field of health economics and industrial organization. He has written articles on incentive and information in the healthcare markets, which appeared in leading economics journals, including American Economic Review, RAND Journal of Economics, and American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. Dr. Iizuka currently serves as Associate Editor of Journal of Health Economics and a member of the Central Social Insurance Medical Council, a council of the Japanese Health Ministry that determines provider payments and drug prices. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.

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