Market structure and gender disparity in health care: Preferences, competition, and quality of care
Journal Article
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. © 2014, RAND.
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- Mcdevitt, RC; Roberts, JW
Published Date
- March 1, 2014
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 45 / 1
Start / End Page
- 116 - 139
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1756-2171
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 0741-6261
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.1111/1756-2171.12044
Citation Source
- Scopus