A large literature in medicine documents variation across areas in the use of surgical treatments
that is unrelated to outcomes. Observers of this phenomenon have invoked “flat of the …

In the Medicare program, increases in cost sharing by a supplemental insurer can exert
financial externalities. We study a policy change that raised patient cost sharing for the …

The conventional wisdom for the health care sector is that idiosyncratic features leave little
scope for market forces to allocate consumers to higher performance producers. However, we …

In the United States, two patients with the same medical condition can receive drastically
different treatments. In addition, the same patient can walk into two physicians’ offices and …

In its study of racial and ethnic disparities in health care, the Institute of Medicine (IOM)
concluded that there were large and significant disparities in the quality and quantity of health …

In the United States, health care technology has contributed to rising survival rates, yet health
care spending relative to GDP has also grown more rapidly than in any other country. We …

Background Data are lacking on the proportion of physicians who face malpractice claims in
a year, the size of those claims, and the cumulative career malpractice risk according to …

We examine the relationship between large infrastructure spending, of the type implied by
interstate highway construction, and the level of economic activity. By collecting historical data …

The quality of care received by Medicare beneficiaries varies across areas. We find that states
with higher Medicare spending have lower-quality care. This negative relationship may be …

Concerns about reducing the rate of growth of health expenditures have reignited interest in
medical liability reforms and their potential to save money by reducing the practice of …