Roger Bate|Ginger Zhe Jin|Aparna Mathur
Does price reveal poor-quality drugs? Evidence from 17 countries
American Enterprise Institute|University of Maryland, College Park|American Enterprise Institute
focusing 8 drug types whoapproved medicine list constructed original dataset 899 drug samples 17 low medianincome countries tested visual appearance disintegration analyzed ingredients chromatography spectrometry fifteen percent samples fail least one test considered substandard controlling local factors find failing drugs priced 136187 lower nonfailing drugs signaling effect price far complete especially noninnovator brands look pharmacy assessed covert shoppers weakly correlated results quality tests findings suggest consumers likely suspect low quality market price noninnovator brand look pharmacy none signals perfectly identify substandard counterfeit drugs