Testing for the Role of Prejudice in Emergency Departments Using Bounceback Rates

Shamena Anwar () and Hanming Fang
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Shamena Anwar: Heinz School of Public Policy and Management, Carnegie Mellon University

PIER Working Paper Archive from Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania

Abstract: We propose and empirically implement a test for the presence of racial prejudice among emergency department (ED) physicians based on the bounceback rates of the patients who were discharged after receiving diagnostic tests during their initial ED visits. A bounceback is defined as a return to the ED within 72 hours of being initially discharged. Based on a plausible model of physician behavior, we show that differential bounceback rates across patients of different racial groups who are discharged after receiving diagnostic tests from their ED visits are informative of the racial prejudice of the physicians. Applying the test to administrative data of ED visits from California and New Jersey, we do not find evidence of prejudice against black and Hispanic patients. Our finding suggests that, at least in the emergency department setting, taste based discrimination does not play an important role in the racial disparities in health care.

Keywords: Racial Prejudice; Statistical Discrimination; Outcome Test; Bounceback Rates (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I11 J7 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2011-03-09
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Testing for the Role of Prejudice in Emergency Departments Using Bounceback Rates (2012)
Working Paper: Testing for the Role of Prejudice in Emergency Departments Using Bounceback Rates (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pen:papers:11-007

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