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Moral Hazard and Less Invasive Medical Treatment for Coronary Artery Disease: The Case of Cigarette Smoking

Jesse Margolis (jmargolis@gc.cuny.edu), Jason Hockenberry, Michael Grossman and Shin-Yi Chou (syc2@lehigh.edu)
Additional contact information
Jesse Margolis: CUNY Graduate Center
Shin-Yi Chou: Lehigh University

No 8492, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Comparisons of the effectiveness of two common procedures for Coronary Artery Disease: Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) and Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG). Evidence indicates that CABG – the more invasive procedure – leads to superior long term outcomes for otherwise similar patients, though there is little consensus as to why. In this article, we propose a novel explanation: patient offsetting behavior. We hypothesize that patients who undergo the more invasive procedure, CABG, are more likely to improve their behavior – eating, exercise, smoking, and drinking – in a way that increases longevity. To test our hypothesis, we use Medicare records linked to the National Health Interview Survey to study one such behavior: smoking. We find that CABG patients are 12 percentage points more likely to quit smoking in the one-year period immediately surrounding their procedure than PCI patients, a result that is robust to alternative specifications.

Keywords: coronary artery disease; moral hazard; smoking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2014-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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