THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICIAN IN THE GENERIC VERSUS TRADE-NAME PRESCRIPTION DECISION

I examine the importance of physicians in the process by which patient s receive either trade-name or generic drugs, Using a dataset on physi cians, their patients, and the multisource drugs prescribed, I find th at almost all physicians prescribe both types of drugs to their patien ts, but some physicians are more likely to prescribe generic drugs whi le other physicians are more likely to prescribe trade-name drugs. Ver y little of the prescription decision can be explained by observable c haracteristics of individual patients, but all of the evidence indicat es that physicians are indeed an important agent in determining whethe r patients receive either trade-name or generic drugs.