 The short- and long-run effects of medical malpractice lawsuits on medical spending and hospital operations in ChinaGordon Liu, Junjian Yi, Ye Yuan and Shaoyang Zhao Journal of Comparative Economics, 2023, vol. 51, issue 4, 1142-1161 Abstract: China is experiencing a surge in medical malpractice lawsuits. Using administrative hospital panel data, this paper investigates both short- and long-run impacts of medical malpractice lawsuits on patient medical spending and hospital operations. We find that after the occurrence of an additional malpractice lawsuit in a hospital, total medical spending per patient visit increases by 2.8% in the current year and by as much as 8.8% in the long run. This increase is mainly driven by spending on prescription drugs and diagnostic tests. In response, hospitals invest more in medical devices and procure more drugs. We find little evidence of changes in patient outcomes. Our findings show that the surge of medical malpractice lawsuits leads to defensive medicine and fuels the secular growth of medical spending in China. Keywords: Medical malpractice; Defensive medicine; Medical tort law; Healthcare market (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:51:y:2023:i:4:p:1142-1161 DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2023.05.002 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Comparative Economics is currently edited by D. Berkowitz and G. Roland More articles in Journal of Comparative Economics from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.