Regulation of and by Pharmacists in the Netherlands and Belgium: An Economic Approach

This book examines the regulation of pharmacists in the Netherlands and Belgium from the perspective of law and economics. It starts with an extensive and accessible overview of the economic literature with respect to the regulation (including self-regulation) of liberal professions. Subsequently, this book analyses the extent to which the current regulation of Dutch and Belgian pharmacists serves the public interest and the extent to which this regulation is a result of rent-seeking behaviour by private interest groups. The author concludes that some regulation, notably with respect to advertising, design of the pharmacy, establishment of pharmacies and drug prices, does not seem to serve the public interest. Moreover, he criticises the regulation of reimbursement for the pharmacist, which in both countries is still linked to the phar-macists monopoly in the distribution of drugs, despite new tasks of the pharmacist in the field of pharmaceutical care. In addition to a theoretical analysis, the author carries out an empirical research of rent-seeking behaviour in the pharmaceutical market. Although the book studies the situation in the Netherlands and in Belgium, its conclusions will certainly apply to other countries and other professions. The book will therefore be of interest to all economists, lawyers and practitioners interested in regulation of the liberal professions as well as practitioners and academics working in the field of health care.

After graduating in economics (specialisations: microeconomics, antitrust policy), Niels Philipsen started a Ph.D. research in the field of Law and Economics at the Maastricht Institute for Transnational Legal Research (METRO). He obtained his Ph.D. degree in 2003 on the topic "Regulation of and by pharmacists in the Netherlands and Belgium: An economic approach". In 2003 he worked at the European Commission (DG Competition) in Brussels. In 2005 he was a visiting scholar at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign (USA), and in Spring 2007 he was a “European Visiting Professor” at Peking University in Beijing (China). From 2004 to 2006 he was a postdoctoral researcher in the NWO-programme "Shifts in Governance". Since 2007 he has been working as a Senior Researcher in various research projects (including contract research for, inter alia, various ministries, European Commission, OECD, insurers, and professional organizations). He teaches on Law and Economics, competition law and European integration. In 2013 he became Vice-Director of METRO, the Maastricht European Institute for Transnational Legal Research, located at the Faculty of Law.