Abstract
This chapter revolves around the feasibility of empirical demand modeling of medical tourism. The author develops a modeling framework that accommodates and structures previously identified candidate drivers of medical tourism along a heterogeneous product dimension and multilevel demand and supply dimensions. He highlights the importance and methodological implications of distinguishing between medical tourists and medical travelers and suggests a three-step process to identify the latter empirically. Taking into account available data sets, ‘The Sum of Its Parts’ concludes by proposing three feasible empirical investigations that sample the modeling framework space.
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Schmerler, K. (2018). The Sum of its Parts: A Structured Approach to the Modeling of Destination Choice. In: Medical Tourism in Germany. Developments in Health Economics and Public Policy, vol 13. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03988-2_3
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