Medical R&D differs from other R&D because of a unique linkage between output and input markets: potential consumers of existing medical products are also potential subjects in clinical trials required to develop new products. Therefore, a quality increase or price reduction for an existing treatment reduces patients’ incentive to participate in trials of new treatments. We label this linkage the “subject supply effect” and provide evidence of it from trials of hepatitis C and AIDS treatments. The subject supply effect has important positive implications for how policies affect the rate of medical R&D and normative implications for whether subjects ought to be compensated for enrolling in clinical trials.

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统计中的劳动力市场：医疗研发中的主体供给效应

医疗研发与其他研发有所不同，因为产出和投入市场之间有着独特的联系：现有医疗产品的潜在消费者也是开发新产品所需的临床试验的潜在对象。因此，现有治疗方法的质量提高或价格降低会降低患者参与新治疗方法的动机。我们将这种联系称为“主体供应效应”，并从丙型肝炎和艾滋病治疗的试验中提供证据。受试者的供应效应对于政策如何影响医疗研发的速度具有重要的积极意义，对于是否应为参加临床试验而应给予受试者补偿的规范意义也具有重要意义。