TY  - JOUR
AU  - Goldman,Fred
AU  - Grossman,Michael
TI  - The Demand for Pediatric Care: An Hedonic Approach
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 134
PY  - 1979
Y2  - April 1979
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w0134
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w0134.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Fred Goldman
10 West 66th Street, Apt 6A
New York, NY 10023
Tel: 212/595-7110
Fax: 212/579-2977
E-Mail: fred.goldman@gmail.com

Michael Grossman
Ph.D. Program in Economics
City University of New York Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue, 5th Floor
New York, NY  10016-4309
Tel: 212/817-7959
Fax: 212/817-1597
E-Mail: mgrossman@gc.cuny.edu
AB  - The model that we develop is used to analyze properties of the demand functions for quantity and quality. It is then applied to study the demand for pediatric care -- physicians' services rendered to children.2The theoretical model of quantity -- quality substitution provides a frame-work for demand analysis whenever the market for a good is distinguished by a quality component. The analysis is developed within the household production framework of consumer behavior and assumes that parents both demand and produce quality children, where children's health is one aspect of their quality. Thus, the demand curves for pediatric care are derived from the interaction between the demand and production functions of children's health. In the analysis, we emphasize the effects of income, the price of pediatric services, and the time costs of obtaining these services on the quantity (measured in terms of visits) and quality of services demanded.
ER  -