Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/150518 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Citation: 
[Journal:] Health Economics Review [ISSN:] 2191-1991 [Volume:] 5 [Issue:] 38 [Publisher:] Springer [Place:] Heidelberg [Year:] 2015 [Pages:] 1-15
Publisher: 
Springer, Heidelberg
Abstract: 
This paper examines the extent to which agglomeration of the hospital service industry enhances the productivity of producing health care. Specifically, we use a large set of private insurance claims from the FAIR Health database to show that an increasing spatial concentration of hospital services results in a decreased cost of obtaining intermediate medical services. We explicitly test whether the reduced cost at concentrated locations arises from the ability to share intermediate service providers. The identification relies on state variation in medical lab technician licensure requirements, which influence the cost of intermediate services only through the cost of running a lab. Our findings suggest that agglomeration of the hospital service industry attracts specialized medical labs, which in turn help to reduce the cost of producing laboratory tests.
Subjects: 
Agglomeration
Health care
Input sharing
JEL: 
R00
I11
L23
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article

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