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Labour Supply, Work Effort and Contract Choice: Theory and Evidence on Physicians

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  • Bernard Fortin

    ()

  • Nicolas Jacquemet
  • Bruce S. Shearer

    ()

Abstract

We develop and estimate a generalized labour supply model that incorporates work effort into the standard consumption-leisure trade-off. We allow workers a choice between two contracts: a piece rate contract, wherein he is paid per unit of service provided, and a mixed contract, wherein he receives an hourly wage and a reduced piece rate. This setting gives rise to a nonconvex budget set and an efficient budget constraint (the upper envelope of contract-specific budget sets). We apply our model to data collected on specialist physicians working in the Province of Quebec (Canada). Our data set contains information on each physician’s labour supply and their work effort (clinical services provided per hour worked). It also covers a period of policy reform under which physicians could choose between two compensation systems: the traditional fee-for-service, under which physicians receive a fee for each service provided, and mixed remuneration, under which physicians receive a per diem as well as a reduced fee for service. We estimate the model using a discrete choice approach. We use our estimates to simulate elasticities and the effects of ex ante reforms on physician contracts. Our results show that physician services and effort are much more sensitive to contractual changes than is their time spent at work. Our results also suggest that a mandatory reform, forcing all physicians to adopt the mixed remuneration system, would have had substantially larger effects on physician behaviour than those observed under the voluntary reform.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by CIRANO in its series CIRANO Working Papers with number 2010s-40.

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Date of creation: 01 Sep 2010
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Handle: RePEc:cir:cirwor:2010s-40

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Keywords: Labour supply; effort; contracts; practice patterns of physicians; discrete choice econometric models; mixed logit;

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References

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  1. Badi H. Baltagi & Espen Bratberg & Tor Helge Holmås, 2003. "A Panel Data Study of Physicians’ Labor Supply: The Case of Norway," CESifo Working Paper Series 895, CESifo Group Munich.
  2. Richard Blundell & Alan Duncan & Costas Meghir, 1995. "Estimating labour supply responses using tax reforms," IFS Working Papers W95/07, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
  3. Richard Blundell & Thomas MaCurdy, 1998. "Labour supply: a review of alternative approaches," IFS Working Papers W98/18, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
  4. Showalter, Mark H. & Thurston, Norman K., 1997. "Taxes and labor supply of high-income physicians," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 73-97, October.
  5. Jeremy Lise & Shannon Seitz & Jeffrey Smith, 2004. "Equilibrium Policy Experiments and the Evaluation of Social Programs," NBER Working Papers 10283, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  6. Ferrall, Christopher & Shearer, Bruce, 1999. "Incentives and Transactions Costs within the Firm: Estimating an Agency Model Using Payroll Records," Review of Economic Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(2), pages 309-38, April.
  7. A. Zabalza & C. Pissarides & M. Barton, 1980. "Social security and the choice between full-time work, part-time work and retirement," NBER Chapters, in: Econometric Studies in Public Finance, pages 245-276 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  8. Becker, Gary S & Lewis, H Gregg, 1973. "On the Interaction between the Quantity and Quality of Children," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(2), pages S279-88, Part II, .
  9. Devlin, Rose Anne & Sarma, Sisira, 2008. "Do physician remuneration schemes matter? The case of Canadian family physicians," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 1168-1181, September.
  10. Dumont, Etienne & Fortin, Bernard & Jacquemet, Nicolas & Shearer, Bruce, 2008. "Physicians' multitasking and incentives: Empirical evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 1436-1450, December.
  11. Macurdy, T. & Green, D. & Paarsch, H., 1990. "Assessing Empirical Approaches For Analyzing Taxes And Labor Supply," Working Papers e-90-11, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
  12. repec:fth:stanho:e-90-11 is not listed on IDEAS
  13. Bolduc, Denis & Fortin, Bernard & Fournier, Marc-Andre, 1996. "The Effect of Incentive Policies on the Practice Location of Doctors: A Multinomial Probit Analysis," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 14(4), pages 703-32, October.
  14. Dickinson, David L, 1999. "An Experimental Examination of Labor Supply and Work Intensities," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(4), pages 638-70, October.
  15. Bernard Fortin & Nicolas Jacquemet & Bruce Shearer, 2008. "Policy Analysis in the Health-Services Market: Accounting for Quality and Quantity," Cahiers de recherche 0807, CIRPEE.
  16. Gourieroux, Christian & Monfort, Alain, 1993. "Simulation-based inference : A survey with special reference to panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1-2), pages 5-33, September.
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Cited by:
  1. Kantarevic, Jasmin & Kralj, Boris, 2011. "Quality and Quantity in Primary Care Mixed Payment Models: Evidence from Family Health Organizations in Ontario," IZA Discussion Papers 5762, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  2. Joanne Castonguay, 2011. "Analyse comparative des mécanismes de gestion des paniers de services," CIRANO Project Reports 2011rp-16, CIRANO.

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