Geographic and Socioeconomic Variation in Healthcare: Evidence from Migration

Péter Elek, Anita Győrfi (), Nóra Kungl and Daniel Prinz ()
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Anita Győrfi: Vienna Graduate School of Economics

No 2318, CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS from Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies

Abstract: We study variation in healthcare utilization across geographies and socioeconomic groups in Hungary. Exploiting migration across geographic regions and relying on high-quality administrative data on healthcare use and income we show that the role of place-specific supply factors is heterogeneous across types of care and across socioeconomic groups. Overall, place-specific factors account for 68% of the variation in outpatient spending and 35% of the variation in drug spending, but almost none of the variation in inpatient spending. Place effects explain four-fifth of outpatient spending variation for non-employed working-age individuals, but less than two-fifth for individuals with above-median wage incomes. There is a positive association between place effects and outpatient capacity, especially for low-income individuals. These results suggest that access to healthcare varies especially for low-income people even in a context with universal coverage.

Keywords: healthcare utilization; healthcare supply; regional variation; socioeconomic status (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 I11 I14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-hea and nep-ure
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