Spatial competition and quality: evidence from the English family doctor market

Hugh Gravelle, Dan Liu, Carol Propper, Rita Santos

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21 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We examine whether family doctor firms in England respond to local competition by increasing their quality. We measure quality in terms of clinical performance and patient-reported satisfaction to capture its multi-dimensional nature. We use a panel covering 8 years for over 8000 English general practices. We measure competition as the number of rival doctors within a small distance and control for a large number of potential confounders. We find that increases in local competition are associated with increases in patient satisfaction and to a lesser extent in clinical quality. However, the magnitude of the effect is small.

Original languageEnglish
Article number102249
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of Health Economics
Volume68
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2019
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Choice
  • Competition
  • Family
  • Healthcare
  • Physicians
  • Quality

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