Do Physicians Respond to Liability Standards?

Michael Frakes, Matthew B. Frank and Seth Seabury

Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), 2015, vol. 171, issue 1, 58-77

Abstract: We explore the sensitivity of the clinical decisions of physicians to the standards of care expected of them under the law, drawing on the abandonment by states over time of rules holding physicians to standards determined by local customs and the contemporaneous adoption of national-standard rules. Using data on broad rates of surgical interventions at the county-by-year level from the Area Resource File, we find that local surgery rates converge towards national surgery rates upon the adoption of national-standard rules. Moreover, we find that these effects are more pronounced among rural counties.

JEL-codes: I10 K13 K41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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DOI: 10.1628/093245613X14188909230136

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