Market structure and gender disparity in health care: preferences, competition, and quality of care

Ryan McDevitt and James W. Roberts

RAND Journal of Economics, 2014, vol. 45, issue 1, 116-139

Abstract: type="main">

We consider the relationship between market structure and health outcomes in a setting where patients have stark preferences: urology patients disproportionately match with a urologist of the same gender. In the United States, however, fewer than 6% of urologists are women despite women constituting 30% of patients. We explain a portion of this disparity with a model of imperfect competition in which urology groups strategically differentiate themselves by employing female urologists. These strategic effects may influence women's health, as markets without a female urologist have a 7.3% higher death rate for female bladder cancer, all else equal.

Date: 2014
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