TY - JOUR
T1 - Estimating returns to hospital volume
T2 - evidence from advanced cancer surgery
AU - Avdic, Daniel
AU - Lundborg, Petter
AU - Vikström, Johan
PY - 2019/1/1
Y1 - 2019/1/1
N2 - High-volume hospitals typically perform better than low-volume hospitals. In this paper, we study whether such patterns reflect a causal effect of case volume on patient outcomes. To this end, we exploit closures and openings of entire cancer clinics in Swedish hospitals which provides sharp and arguably exogenous variation in case volumes. Using detailed register data on more than 100,000 treatment episodes of advanced cancer surgery, our results suggest substantial positive effects of operation volume on survival. Complementary analyses point to learning-by-doing as an important explanation.
AB - High-volume hospitals typically perform better than low-volume hospitals. In this paper, we study whether such patterns reflect a causal effect of case volume on patient outcomes. To this end, we exploit closures and openings of entire cancer clinics in Swedish hospitals which provides sharp and arguably exogenous variation in case volumes. Using detailed register data on more than 100,000 treatment episodes of advanced cancer surgery, our results suggest substantial positive effects of operation volume on survival. Complementary analyses point to learning-by-doing as an important explanation.
KW - hospital case volume
KW - learning-by-doing
KW - cancer surgery
KW - survival
KW - casual effect
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85057813282&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2018.10.005
DO - 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2018.10.005
M3 - Article
C2 - 30529091
AN - SCOPUS:85057813282
SN - 0167-6296
VL - 63
SP - 81
EP - 99
JO - Journal of Health Economics
JF - Journal of Health Economics
ER -