http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/5978/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/23610/ 2011-06-24T00:00:00Z Pharmaceutical marketing effectiveness comprises the measurement of marketing efforts of pharmaceutical firms towards doctors and patients. These firms spend billions of dollars yearly to promote their prescription drugs. This dissertation provides empirical analyses and methods to contribute to several substantial problems on pharmaceutical marketing effectiveness. Using unique data in every essay, it studies the role of the firm, sales rep and doctor in pharmaceutical marketing. The first essay evaluates the size of the sales force and the allocation of sales calls among doctors. In particular, it provides a method to gauge a yet-to-be-enacted firm-initiated policy shift. The second essay studies the effectiveness of the information content provided in sales calls. The main questions evolve around the discussion of positively biased drug information and the responsiveness of doctors to that. In the third essay, the interplay between drug sales, marketing and scientific reviews is studied in detail. The essays reveal important implications for academics and managers. For academics: (i) a new alternative to gauge policy shifts is offered; (ii) a model is offered to analyze the effectiveness of sales message content; and (iii) scientific reviews should be considered to correctly measure pharmaceutical marketing effectiveness. The implications for managers are: (i) the market leader is able to buck the trend in increasing sales forces; (ii) sales reps discuss positively biased information too often, which is counterproductive in the long run; and (iii) scientific reviews on products should be actively considered as a part of the marketing mix. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/7029/ 2005-11-07T00:00:00Z The issue of lifelong learning is high on the political agenda. However, despite this political interest and the large economic literature on human capital, the impact of work-related training on the discrepancy between function requirements and the skills of the employee has been ignored. In this paper we use an ordered probit model to analyze the perceived change in discrepancy. Based on the bi-annual OSA panel from 1998 till 2002 for The Netherlands, we show that taking a work-related course decreases the discrepancy significantly. We correct for the endogeneity between the decision to take a course and the change in discrepancy and we argue that ignoring the selective decision to take a course leads to misleading conclusions about the effect of these courses on the change in discrepancy. Some respondents of the OSA-panel drop out between two waves. To correct for the possibility of selective attrition we develop an Inverse Probability Weight (IPW) estimation method for the ordered probit with an endogenous binary regressor. From the implied marginal effects of the IPW estimation we conclude that taking a course increases the probability to change the fit between skills and function requirements from Bad to Good with 16~percent-point.