Faculty of Economics and Business Administration

Business Administration

CINCH Research Center

In the first phase from 2012 to 2016, we succeeded in positioning CINCH (Competent in Competition and Health) as an attractive and active centre within the European research landscape. The second funding phase for a further four years was started in June 2016. To this end, CINCH will receive an additional 2.2 million euros from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

The health systems of many countries are facing enormous challenges due to demographic change. As one possible solution, increasingly competitive elements have recently been introduced into the German healthcare system. The analysis of these elements and the associated consequences form the core content focus of CINCH’s research.

Two research groups form the core structure, and each has a different methodological focus: Jun. Prof. Daniel Avdic’s group is examining competition within the healthcare system based on empirical analysis of the competition. The other group led by Jun. Prof. Nadja Kairies-Schwarz analyses the behaviour of the actors of the healthcare system using laboratory experiments. Three projects complement the research groups: one focuses on refining the risk-structure adjustment under the direction of Prof. Jürgen Wasem, one on pay-for-performance under Prof. Jeannette Brosig-Koch, and one on inpatient care at the Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE). CINCH is led by Professors Martin Karlsson (Director), Reinhold Schnabel (Co-director) and Jürgen Wasem. They cooperate with the Rhenish-Westphalian Institute for Economic Research (RWI) in Essen, and the DICE.

Experimental Economics

The research focus of the Junior Professorship for Experimental Economics (Nadja Kairies-Schwarz) is on the study of real people’s individual decision-making behaviour using experimental economics, and the analysis of national healthcare system-related issues. The early-stage research group “Health Care Markets” in the CINCH Health Economics Centre of Excellence, which is sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education, is pursuing this topic in particular, using controlled laboratory experiments to analyse the preferences and behaviour of providers and customers in competitively-organized healthcare markets. Objects of investigation within this project include the selection of health-insurance contracts in connection with individually-raised risk preferences, and the change in the quality of healthcare services following a merger in a hospital market. Together with Jeannette Brosig-Koch, the effect of different levels of remuneration incentives for doctors, such as pay-for-performance, is also analysed. The data collected in the laboratory is used to establish more precise findings concerning the role of individual behaviour such as altruism and risk preferences, which are useful for understanding competitively-organized healthcare markets. In collaboration with a research team at the University of Konstanz, distribution norms in complex team production processes, such as joint ventures, research collaborations and physician networks, will also be examined.