Testing a Roy model with productivity spillovers
Subtitle: evidence from the treatment of heart attacks
By: Amitabh Chandra, Douglas Staiger.
Contributors: Staiger, Douglas.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series ;; working paper 10811; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) ;; working paper no. 10811.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Subjects: Medicine -- Specialties and specialists.; Medical geography.
Description: "Productivity spillovers are often cited as a reason for geographic specialization in production.  A large literature in medicine documents specialization across areas in the use of surgical treatments, which is unrelated to patient outcomes.  We show that a simple Roy model of patient treatment choice with productivity spillovers can generate these facts.  Our model predicts that high-use areas will have higher returns to surgery, better outcomes among patients most appropriate for surgery, and worse outcomes among patients least appropriate for surgery.  We find strong empirical support for these and other predictions of the model, and decisively reject alternative explanations commonly proposed to explain geographic variation in medical care"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Title from PDF file as viewed on 1/7/2005.
Also available in print.
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Mode of access: World Wide Web.