The Utilization of Outpatient Medical Services in Japan

Jayanta Bhattacharya, William Vogt (), Aki Yoshikawa and Toshitaka Nakahara

Journal of Human Resources, 1996, vol. 31, issue 2, 450-476

Abstract: We estimate the price elasticity of demand for outpatient care in Japan. We use a nationally representative microdata set consisting of nearly 440,000 Japanese patients. Using time between outpatient visits as a demand measure, we estimate a Cox proportional hazards model to calculate price effects. With predicted probabilities we simulate yearly utilization and obtain elasticity estimates. For most diagnostic categories, we obtain inelastic, downward sloping demand curves with price elasticities from -0.12 to -0.54. For the anomalous category we cannot reject a zero slope. The elasticity estimates for Japan are similar to U.S. estimates despite institutional differences.

Date: 1996
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/146071
A subscription is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.

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:uwp:jhriss:v:31:y:1996:i:2:p:450-476

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Human Resources from University of Wisconsin Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().