Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/67171 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 6936
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Using a French exhaustive dataset, this paper studies the determinants of regional disparities in mortality for patients admitted to hospitals for a heart attack. These disparities are large, with an 80% difference in the propensity to die within 15 days between extreme regions. They may reflect spatial differences in patient characteristics, treatments, hospital characteristics, and local healthcare market structure. To distinguish between these factors, we estimate a flexible duration model. The estimated model is aggregated at the regional level and a spatial variance analysis is conducted. We find that spatial differences in the use of innovative treatments play a major role whereas the local composition of hospitals by ownership does not have any noticeable effect. Moreover, the higher the local concentration of patients in a few large hospitals rather than many small ones, the lower the mortality. Regional unobserved effects account for around 20% of spatial disparities.
Subjects: 
spatial health disparities
economic geography
stratified duration model
JEL: 
I11
C41
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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