---
title: "Health care costs research: papers and trends"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “health care costs” appeared in 1,021 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in health economics and policy (740), economics (198) and finance (25)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/health-care-costs
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/health-care-costs.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “health care costs” appeared in 1,021 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in health economics and policy (740), economics (198) and finance (25). (as of 2026-11-03)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-11-03T18:03:37+09:00
window: 2026-10-05 to 2026-11-03
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Papers on “health care costs”

Research on “health care costs” in the 480 tracked journals: papers per year and category, the journals, institutions and countries publishing it, the keywords studied with it and its most-cited papers. It is not among the most frequent keywords of the last 30 days, so this page has no list of its latest papers.

Back to the ranking: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/keywords.md

## Key findings

- From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “health care costs” appeared in 1,021 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in health economics and policy (740), economics (198) and finance (25).
- 127 of them were published in 2025, against 70 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were Peking University (11), University of Oxford (10) and University of York (9).
- The journals publishing most of them were Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation (57), Health Economics Review (57) and The European Journal of Health Economics (53).
- The most-cited of them is “Economic burden of stroke: a systematic review on post-stroke care” (The European Journal of Health Economics, 2018), with 471 citations.

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [Health Economics and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/health-economics-and-policy.md) | 48 | 68 | 65 | 63 | 69 | 77 | 75 | 72 | 93 | 110 |
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 15 | 22 | 15 | 14 | 18 | 24 | 18 | 27 | 25 | 20 |
| [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/finance.md) | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 2 |
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| [Statistics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/statistics.md) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Higher Education and Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/higher-education-and-research.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| All categories | 70 | 101 | 83 | 79 | 98 | 112 | 109 | 106 | 127 | 136 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/cost-effectiveness-and-resource-allocation.md) | 57 |
| 2 | [Health Economics Review](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/health-economics-review.md) | 57 |
| 3 | [The European Journal of Health Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/the-european-journal-of-health-economics.md) | 53 |
| 4 | [PharmacoEconomics - Open](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/pharmacoeconomics-open.md) | 51 |
| 5 | [PharmacoEconomics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/pharmacoeconomics.md) | 39 |
| 6 | [Applied Health Economics and Health Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/applied-health-economics-and-health-policy.md) | 27 |
| 7 | [Health Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/health-policy.md) | 22 |
| 8 | [Journal of Health Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-health-economics.md) | 12 |
| 9 | [Health Policy and Technology](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/health-policy-and-technology.md) | 11 |
| 10 | [Economic Analysis and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/economic-analysis-and-policy.md) | 9 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Peking University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/peking-university.md) | 11 |
| 2 | [University of Oxford](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-oxford.md) | 10 |
| 3 | [University of York](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-york.md) | 9 |
| 4 | [Erasmus University Rotterdam](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/erasmus-university-rotterdam.md) | 8 |
| 5 | [Harvard University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/harvard-university.md) | 8 |
| 6 | [The University of Melbourne](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/the-university-of-melbourne.md) | 8 |
| 7 | Instituto de Salud Carlos III | 7 |
| 8 | [The University of Sydney](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/the-university-of-sydney.md) | 7 |
| 9 | [Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/vrije-universiteit-amsterdam.md) | 7 |
| 10 | Care and Public Health Research Institute | 6 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | United States | 106 |
| 2 | China | 84 |
| 3 | United Kingdom | 58 |
| 4 | Germany | 43 |
| 5 | Spain | 31 |
| 6 | Italy | 31 |
| 7 | Australia | 27 |
| 8 | Netherlands | 27 |
| 9 | Canada | 21 |
| 10 | Iran | 20 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [cost-effectiveness](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/cost-effectiveness.md) | 77 |
| 2 | [economic burden](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/economic-burden.md) | 61 |
| 3 | [quality-adjusted life years](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/quality-adjusted-life-years.md) | 53 |
| 4 | [health care utilization](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/health-care-utilization.md) | 40 |
| 5 | [China](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/china.md) | 35 |
| 6 | [older adults](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/older-adults.md) | 31 |
| 7 | hospitalization | 29 |
| 8 | healthcare resource utilization | 27 |
| 9 | [COVID-19 pandemic](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/covid-19-pandemic.md) | 21 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 471 | 4.7 | [Economic burden of stroke: a systematic review on post-stroke care](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-018-0984-0) | [The European Journal of Health Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/the-european-journal-of-health-economics.md) | 2018-06-16 | Saša Rajšić, Holger Gothe, Helena Hiemisch Lobo Borba et al. |
| 2 | 394 | 5.3 | [A Systematic Review of Medical Costs Associated with Heart Failure in the USA (2014–2020)](https://doi.org/10.1007/s40273-020-00952-0) | [PharmacoEconomics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/pharmacoeconomics.md) | 2020-08-19 | Michael Urbich, Gary A. Globe, Krystallia Pantiri et al. |
| 3 | 262 | 4.0 | [Do renewable energy and health expenditures improve load capacity factor in the USA and Japan? A new approach to environmental issues](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-021-01321-0) | [The European Journal of Health Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/the-european-journal-of-health-economics.md) | 2021-05-21 | Uğur Korkut Pata |
| 4 | 259 | 3.1 | [Economic Burden of Anxiety Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis](https://doi.org/10.1007/s40273-019-00849-7) | [PharmacoEconomics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/pharmacoeconomics.md) | 2019-10-24 | Alexander Konnopka, Hannah König |
| 5 | 247 | 3.3 | [Cost and effects of integrated care: a systematic literature review and meta-analysis](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-020-01217-5) | [The European Journal of Health Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/the-european-journal-of-health-economics.md) | 2020-07-06 | Stephen Rocks, Daniela Berntson, Alejandro Gil-Salmerón et al. |

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Papers on “health care costs”. Journal and Conference Research Rankings. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/health-care-costs

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-health-care-costs,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “health care costs”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/health-care-costs}},
  urldate = {2026-11-03},
  note = {Journal and Conference Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).