Stress Relief? Externalities from Specialty Hospital Entry

Daniel R. Arnold, Michael R. Richards and Christopher Whaley

No 34772, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Mental illness exacts a heavy toll on the US healthcare system and strains general hospitals and their emergency departments. We study how psychiatric inpatient facility entry impacts the local hospital industry. We find that referrals, including from the legal system, are redirected to the specialized facilities––leaving general hospitals with approximately 60% fewer psychiatric admissions. General hospitals also discharge 50% more patients to psychiatric facilities and substitute away from high-skill psychiatric labor––consistent with specialization and market segmentation. Emergency department volumes do not change but care does. However, community-based crime, overdose deaths, and suicides do not decline in the short-run.

JEL-codes: I11 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-01
Note: EH
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w34772.pdf (application/pdf)
Access to the full text is generally limited to series subscribers, however if the top level domain of the client browser is in a developing country or transition economy free access is provided. More information about subscriptions and free access is available at http://www.nber.org/wwphelp.html. Free access is also available to older working papers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34772

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w34772
The price is Paper copy available by mail.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().