Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/36838 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 4994
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper uses an unusual administrative dataset covering the universe of French hospitals to consider hospital employment: this is consistently higher in public hospitals than in Not-For-Profit (NFP) or private hospitals, even controlling for a number of measures of hospital output. NFP hospitals serve as a benchmark, being very similar to Public hospitals, but without political influence on their hiring. Public-hospital employment is positively correlated with the local unemployment rate, whereas no such relationship is found in other hospitals. This is consistent with public hospitals providing employment in depressed areas. We appeal to the Political Science literature and calculate local political allegiance, using expert evaluations on various parties' political positions and local election results. The relationship between public-hospital employment and local unemployment is stronger the more left-wing the local municipality. This latter result holds especially when electoral races are tight, consistent with a concern for re-election.
Subjects: 
Hospitals
public employment
unemployment
political preferences
JEL: 
D21
D72
I18
J21
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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