Megumi Murakami

I am a Ph.D. student at the Department of Economics of Northwestern University.

My research interests are in economic history, game theory and microeconomics. I am particularly interested in the history of medical science and its theoretical analysis.

Job Market Paper

Supply and Demand of Medical Knowledge, Megumi Murakami

This research uses a signaling game to study two millennia of medical history and its stagnant development compared to other natural sciences. Upon observing signals, two senders/physicians choose either old or new technologies. Then, a unit mass of receivers/patients select one of the two physicians. Three mutually exclusive types of pure strategy equilibria exist, corresponding to the three stages in the evolution of medical technology. Our results identify three contributing factors to the stagnant development of medicine: bias in patients' beliefs toward the old method, the limited accuracy of physicians' signals, and intense competition. In particular, intense competition is detrimental to the dissemination of medical knowledge because the physicians tend to stick to the old technology to attract biased patients.