IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-22-00526.html

Altruism heterogeneity, quality competition and horizontal differentiation among healthcare providers

Author

Listed:
  • Nadja Kairies-Schwarz

    (Institute for Health Services Research and Health Economics, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf)

Abstract

Recent empirical evidence shows substantial altruism heterogeneity among healthcare providers. Spurred by this evidence, we build a quality competition model with altruism heterogeneity among healthcare providers that also endogenously determine the degree of horizontal differentiation within the healthcare provision market. We find that relatively more altruistic healthcare providers treat more patients and provide higher quality per patient. In addition, we show that when healthcare providers endogenously choose their location, the more altruistic provider locates more centrally. In terms of specialization this indicates that more altruistic providers can afford to engage in less horizontal differentiation.

Suggested Citation

  • Nadja Kairies-Schwarz, 2023. "Altruism heterogeneity, quality competition and horizontal differentiation among healthcare providers," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 43(2), pages 1143-1154.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-22-00526
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2023/Volume43/EB-23-V43-I2-P95.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chalkley, Martin & Malcomson, James M., 1998. "Contracting for health services when patient demand does not reflect quality," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 1-19, January.
    2. Heyes, Anthony, 2005. "The economics of vocation or 'why is a badly paid nurse a good nurse'?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 561-569, May.
    3. Gravelle, Hugh & Santos, Rita & Siciliani, Luigi, 2014. "Does a hospital's quality depend on the quality of other hospitals? A spatial econometrics approach," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 203-216.
    4. Daniel P. Kessler & Mark B. McClellan, 2000. "Is Hospital Competition Socially Wasteful?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(2), pages 577-615.
    5. Jack, William, 2005. "Purchasing health care services from providers with unknown altruism," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 73-93, January.
    6. Philippe Choné & Ching-To Albert Ma, 2011. "Optimal Health Care Contract under Physician Agency," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 101-102, pages 229-256.
    7. repec:adr:anecst:y:2011:i:101-102:p:11 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Kristensen, Søren Rud & Siciliani, Luigi & Sutton, Matt, 2016. "Optimal price-setting in pay for performance schemes in health care," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 57-77.
    2. Johann Han & Nadja Kairies‐Schwarz & Markus Vomhof, 2017. "Quality competition and hospital mergers—An experiment," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(S3), pages 36-51, December.
    3. Han, Johann & Kairies-Schwarz, Nadja & Vomhof, Markus, 2016. "Quality competition and hospital mergers: An experiment," Ruhr Economic Papers 609, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    4. Brekke, Kurt R. & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2012. "Quality competition with profit constraints," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 642-659.
    5. repec:nip:nipewp:10/2014 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Kurt R. Brekke & Luigi Siciliani & Odd Rune Straume, 2017. "Hospital Mergers with Regulated Prices," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 119(3), pages 597-627, July.
    7. Kurt R. Brekke & Luigi Siciliani & Odd Rune Straume, 2011. "Quality competition with profit constraints: Do non-profit firms provide higher quality than for-profit firms?," NIPE Working Papers 05/2011, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    8. Kevin E. Pflum, 2015. "Physician Incentives and Treatment Choice," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 712-751, October.
    9. David Bardey & Luigi Siciliani, 2021. "Nursing‐homes' competition and distributional implications when the market is two‐sided," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 472-500, May.
    10. Olivella, Pau & Siciliani, Luigi, 2017. "Reputational concerns with altruistic providers," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 1-13.
    11. Nadja Kairies-Schwarz, 2014. "Altruism Heterogeneity and Quality Competition Among Healthcare Providers," Ruhr Economic Papers 0507, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    12. Kairies-Schwarz, Nadja, 2014. "Altruism Heterogeneity and Quality Competition Among Healthcare Providers," Ruhr Economic Papers 507, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    13. Kurt R. Brekke & Luigi Siciliani & Odd Rune Straume, 2011. "Hospital Competition and Quality with Regulated Prices," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 113, pages 444-469, June.
    14. Barigozzi, Francesca & Burani, Nadia, 2016. "Competition and screening with motivated health professionals," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 358-371.
    15. Godager, Geir & Wiesen, Daniel, 2013. "Profit or patients’ health benefit? Exploring the heterogeneity in physician altruism," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1105-1116.
    16. Jeannette Brosig‐Koch & Heike Hennig‐Schmidt & Nadja Kairies‐Schwarz & Daniel Wiesen, 2017. "The Effects of Introducing Mixed Payment Systems for Physicians: Experimental Evidence," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(2), pages 243-262, February.
    17. Yaping Wu & Yijuan Chen & Sanxi Li, 2018. "Optimal compensation rule under provider adverse selection and moral hazard," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(3), pages 509-524, March.
    18. De Luca, Giacomo & Lisi, Domenico & Martorana, Marco & Siciliani, Luigi, 2021. "Does higher Institutional Quality improve the Appropriateness of Healthcare Provision?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    19. Brosig-Koch, Jeannette & Groß, Mona & Hennig-Schmidt, Heike & Kairies-Schwarz, Nadja & Wiesen, Daniel, 2021. "Physicians' incentives, patients' characteristics, and quality of care: A systematic experimental comparison of fee-for-service, capitation, and pay for performance," Ruhr Economic Papers 923, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    20. Liu, Ting & Ma, Ching-to Albert, 2013. "Health insurance, treatment plan, and delegation to altruistic physician," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 79-96.
    21. Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2019. "Competition and equity in health care markets," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 1-14.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • D4 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design

    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:ebl:ecbull:eb-22-00526. 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: John P. Conley (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.