IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/24338.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Team Formation and Performance: Evidence from Healthcare Referral Networks

Author

Listed:
  • Leila Agha
  • Keith Marzilli Ericson
  • Kimberley H. Geissler
  • James B. Rebitzer

Abstract

How does team-specific capital affect productivity? We examine the teams that primary care physicians (PCPs) assemble when referring patients to specialists. Our theoretical model finds that team-specific capital is greater when PCPs concentrate their referrals within a smaller set of specialists. Empirically, we find patients of PCPs with concentrated referrals have lower healthcare costs, with no discernable reduction in quality. This effect exists for commercially insured and Medicare populations; is statistically and economically significant; and holds under identification strategies that account for unobserved patient and physician characteristics.

Suggested Citation

  • Leila Agha & Keith Marzilli Ericson & Kimberley H. Geissler & James B. Rebitzer, 2018. "Team Formation and Performance: Evidence from Healthcare Referral Networks," NBER Working Papers 24338, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24338
    Note: EH
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w24338.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gary S. Becker & Kevin M. Murphy, 1994. "The Division of Labor, Coordination Costs, and Knowledge," NBER Chapters, in: Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education, Third Edition, pages 299-322, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. James B. Rebitzer & Mark E. Votruba, 2011. "Organizational Economics and Physician Practices," NBER Working Papers 17535, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Ray Reagans & Linda Argote & Daria Brooks, 2005. "Individual Experience and Experience Working Together: Predicting Learning Rates from Knowing Who Knows What and Knowing How to Work Together," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(6), pages 869-881, June.
    4. Thomas N. Hubbard, 2009. "Specialization, Firms, and Markets: The Division of Labor within and between Law Firms," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 25(2), pages 339-371, October.
    5. Amy Finkelstein & Matthew Gentzkow & Heidi Williams, 2016. "Sources of Geographic Variation in Health Care: Evidence From PatientMigration," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(4), pages 1681-1726.
    6. Baumgardner, James R, 1988. "Physicians' Services and the Division of Labor across Local Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(5), pages 948-982, October.
    7. Keith Marzilli Ericson & Amanda Starc, 2015. "Measuring Consumer Valuation of Limited Provider Networks," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 115-119, May.
    8. Roberto A. Weber, 2006. "Managing Growth to Achieve Efficient Coordination in Large Groups," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(1), pages 114-126, March.
    9. Francesco Feri & Bernd Irlenbusch & Matthias Sutter, 2010. "Efficiency Gains from Team-Based Coordination—Large-Scale Experimental Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(4), pages 1892-1912, September.
    10. Brigham Frandsen & James B. Rebitzer, 2014. "Structuring Incentives Within Organizations: The Case of Accountable Care Organizations," NBER Working Papers 20034, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Baker, Laurence C. & Bundorf, M. Kate & Kessler, Daniel P., 2016. "The effect of hospital/physician integration on hospital choice," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1-8.
    12. Agha, Leila & Frandsen, Brigham & Rebitzer, James B., 2019. "Fragmented division of labor and healthcare costs: Evidence from moves across regions," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 144-159.
    13. Chillemi, Ottorino & Gui, Benedetto, 1997. "Team Human Capital and Worker Mobility," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(4), pages 567-585, October.
    14. George J. Mailath & Andrew Postlewaite, 1990. "Workers Versus Firms: Bargaining Over a Firm's Value," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 57(3), pages 369-380.
    15. Barton H. Hamilton & Jack A. Nickerson & Hideo Owan, 2003. "Team Incentives and Worker Heterogeneity: An Empirical Analysis of the Impact of Teams on Productivity and Participation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(3), pages 465-497, June.
    16. Stefan Grosse & Louis Putterman & Bettina Rockenbach, 2011. "Monitoring In Teams: Using Laboratory Experiments To Study A Theory Of The Firm," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 785-816, August.
    17. Robert S. Huckman & Bradley R. Staats & David M. Upton, 2009. "Team Familiarity, Role Experience, and Performance: Evidence from Indian Software Services," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(1), pages 85-100, January.
    18. Meltzer, David, 2001. "Hospitalists and the Doctor-Patient Relationship," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 30(2), pages 589-606, June.
    19. David O. Meltzer & Jeanette W. Chung, 2010. "Coordination, Switching Costs and the Division of Labor in General Medicine: An Economic Explanation for the Emergence of Hospitalists in the United States," NBER Working Papers 16040, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Leila Agha & Keith Marzilli Ericson & Xiaoxi Zhao, 2020. "The Impact of Organizational Boundaries on Healthcare Coordination and Utilization," NBER Working Papers 28179, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Leila Agha & Keith Marzilli Ericson & Kimberley H. Geissler & James B. Rebitzer, 2022. "Team Relationships and Performance: Evidence from Healthcare Referral Networks," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(5), pages 3735-3754, May.
    3. Fadlon, Itzik & Van Parys, Jessica, 2020. "Primary care physician practice styles and patient care: Evidence from physician exits in Medicare," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    4. Böckerman, Petri & Laine, Liisa T. & Nurminen, Mikko & Saxell, Tanja, 2020. "Information Integration, Coordination Failures, and Quality of Prescribing," Working Papers 135, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Agha, Leila & Frandsen, Brigham & Rebitzer, James B., 2019. "Fragmented division of labor and healthcare costs: Evidence from moves across regions," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 144-159.
    6. Alessandra Allocca, 2023. "“No Man is an Island”: An Empirical Study on Team Formation and Performance," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 389, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    7. Kimberley H Geissler & Benjamin Lubin & Keith M Marzilli Ericson, 2020. "The association between patient sharing network structure and healthcare costs," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(6), pages 1-13, June.
    8. Kimberley H. Geissler & Benjamin Lubin & Keith M. Marzilli Ericson, 2021. "The association of insurance plan characteristics with physician patient-sharing network structure," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 189-201, June.
    9. Sebastian Linde, 2019. "The formation of physician patient sharing networks in medicare: Exploring the effect of hospital affiliation," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(12), pages 1435-1448, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Leila Agha & Keith Marzilli Ericson & Kimberley H. Geissler & James B. Rebitzer, 2022. "Team Relationships and Performance: Evidence from Healthcare Referral Networks," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(5), pages 3735-3754, May.
    2. Böckerman, Petri & Laine, Liisa T. & Nurminen, Mikko & Saxell, Tanja, 2020. "Information Integration, Coordination Failures, and Quality of Prescribing," IZA Discussion Papers 13926, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Matt Marx & Bram Timmermans, 2017. "Hiring Molecules, Not Atoms: Comobility and Wages," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(6), pages 1115-1133, December.
    4. Simona Grassi & Ching-to Albert Ma, 2016. "Information acquisition, referral, and organization," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 47(4), pages 935-960, November.
    5. Agha, Leila & Frandsen, Brigham & Rebitzer, James B., 2019. "Fragmented division of labor and healthcare costs: Evidence from moves across regions," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 144-159.
    6. Robert S. Huckman & Gary P. Pisano, 2006. "The Firm Specificity of Individual Performance: Evidence from Cardiac Surgery," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(4), pages 473-488, April.
    7. Enghin Atalay & Sebastian Sotelo & Daniel Tannenbaum, 2021. "The Geography of Job Tasks," Working Papers 21-27, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    8. David G. Lugo‐Palacios & Jonathan M. Clarke & Søren Rud Kristensen, 2023. "Back to basics: A mediation analysis approach to addressing the fundamental questions of integrated care evaluations," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(9), pages 2080-2097, September.
    9. Zeltzer, Dan & Einav, Liran & Chasid, Avichai & Balicer, Ran D., 2021. "Supply-side variation in the use of emergency departments," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    10. Bercovitz, Janet & Feldman, Maryann, 2011. "The mechanisms of collaboration in inventive teams: Composition, social networks, and geography," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 81-93, February.
    11. Choi, Yunsik & Delise, Lisa A. & Lee, Brandon W. & Neely, Jerry, 2021. "Effective staffing of projects for reconciling conflict between cost efficiency and quality," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    12. Jonathan R. Clark & Robert S. Huckman & Bradley R. Staats, 2013. "Learning from Customers: Individual and Organizational Effects in Outsourced Radiological Services," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(5), pages 1539-1557, October.
    13. Kenneth A. Younge & Matt Marx, 2016. "The Value of Employee Retention: Evidence From a Natural Experiment," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(3), pages 652-677, September.
    14. Frank Neffke, 2017. "Coworker Complementarity," SPRU Working Paper Series 2017-05, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    15. Kamei, Kenju & Tabero, Katy, 2021. "The Individual-Team Discontinuity Effect on Institutional Choices: Experimental Evidence in Voluntary Public Goods Provision," MPRA Paper 112106, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Amit Jain & Will Mitchell, 2022. "Specialization as a double‐edged sword: The relationship of scientist specialization with R&D productivity and impact following collaborator change," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(5), pages 986-1024, May.
    17. Emmanouil Avgerinos & Bilal Gokpinar, 2017. "Team Familiarity and Productivity in Cardiac Surgery Operations: The Effect of Dispersion, Bottlenecks, and Task Complexity," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 19(1), pages 19-35, February.
    18. Robert S. Huckman & Bradley R. Staats & David M. Upton, 2009. "Team Familiarity, Role Experience, and Performance: Evidence from Indian Software Services," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(1), pages 85-100, January.
    19. Christoph Engel, 2022. "Lucky you: Your case is heard by a seasoned panel—Panel effects in the German Constitutional Court," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(4), pages 1179-1221, December.
    20. Anatoli Colicev & Tuuli Hakkarainen & Torben Pedersen, 2023. "Multi‐project work and project performance: Friends or foes?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(2), pages 610-636, February.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D85 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Network Formation
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • L2 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior
    • M5 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24338. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.