Does Your Doctor Matter?

Rita Ginja, Julie Riise (), Barton Willage () and Alexander Willén ()
Additional contact information
Julie Riise: University of Bergen
Barton Willage: University of Delaware
Alexander Willén: Norwegian School of Economics

No 17726, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We estimate doctor value-added (VA) combining population-wide patient-doctor register data with exogenous variation in the assignment of patients to GPs. We find substantial variation in the quality of GPs as measured by patients' post-assignment mortality. Certain doctor characteristics and practice styles predict VA, but most of the variation in GP quality is driven by differences in GPs' unobserved ability. VA variation across GPs primarily reflects differences in GPs' ability to engage in prevention and assign the right procedure to the patient. Finally, patients are unable to identify who the high-quality doctors are, and patient-generated ratings are uncorrelated with GP VA.

Pages: 81 pages
Date: 2025-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-lab
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Forthcoming - forthcoming in: Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics

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