Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/222023 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
IEHAS Discussion Papers No. MT-DP - 2018/10
Publisher: 
Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Economics, Budapest
Abstract: 
Using administrative data from Hungary, we analyse the effect of general practitioner (GP) care availability on the consumption of antibiotics. We exploit the geographical and time variation in unfilled GP positions as a source of exogenous variation in the availability of primary care. According to our estimates from fixed effects panel regressions, if the single GP position of a village becomes unfilled, the days of therapy (DOT) as well as public expenditures on antibiotics decrease by 3.2-4.1%. The negative effect on antibiotic consumption is stronger in smaller settlements, in settlements where secondary care is less available, and where antibiotics were previously overprescribed. The quality of prescribing behaviour measured by the ratio of narrow-spectrum to broad-spectrum antibiotics deteriorates significantly as a consequence of worse primary care availability. The number of GP consultations decreases by 9.8%, but prescribed antibiotic DOT per GP visit goes up by 7.2%.
Subjects: 
Administrative panel data
Antibiotics
Primary care availability
Quality of antibiotic prescription
Unfilled general practices
JEL: 
C23
I10
I11
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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