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Technology adoption and market allocation: The case of robotic surgery

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  • Horn, Danea
  • Sacarny, Adam
  • Zhou, Annetta

Abstract

The adoption of health care technology is central to improving productivity in this sector. To provide new evidence on how technology affects health care markets, we focus on one area where adoption has been particularly rapid: surgery for prostate cancer. Within just eight years, robotic surgery grew to become the dominant intensive prostate cancer treatment method. Using a difference-in-differences design, we show that adopting a robot drives prostate cancer patients to the hospital. To test whether this result reflects market expansion or business stealing, we also consider market-level effects of adoption and find effects that are significant but smaller, suggesting that adoption expands the market while also reallocating some patients across hospitals. Marginal patients are relatively young and healthy, inconsistent with the concern that adoption broadens the criteria for intervention to patients who would gain little from it. We conclude by discussing implications for the social value of technology diffusion in health care markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Horn, Danea & Sacarny, Adam & Zhou, Annetta, 2022. "Technology adoption and market allocation: The case of robotic surgery," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:86:y:2022:i:c:s016762962200087x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2022.102672
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    Cited by:

    1. Janssen, Aljoscha, 2022. "Innovation Begets Innovation and Concentration: The Case of Upstream Oil & Gas in the North Sea," Working Paper Series 1431, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    2. Michele Fioretti & Alessandro Iaria & Aljoscha Janssen & Cl'ement Mazet-Sonilhac & Robert K. Perrons, 2022. "Sovereign Hold-Up and Technology Adoption: Evidence from the North Sea," Papers 2205.13186, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2026.
    3. Laia Maynou & Alistair McGuire & Victoria Serra‐Sastre, 2024. "Efficiency and productivity gains of robotic surgery: The case of the English National Health Service," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(8), pages 1831-1856, August.
    4. Qiren Liu & Sen Luo & Robert Seamans, 2023. "Pain or Anxiety? The Health Consequences of Rising Robot Adoption in China," Papers 2301.10675, arXiv.org.
    5. Elena Ashtari Tafti, 2022. "Technology, skills, and performance: the case of robots in surgery," IFS Working Papers W22/46, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    6. Tafti, Elena Ashtari, 2023. "Technology, Skills, and Performance: The Case of Robots in Surgery," CINCH Working Paper Series (since 2020) 78746, Duisburg-Essen University Library, DuEPublico.
    7. Michele Fioretti & Alessandro Iaria & Aljoscha Janssen & Robert K Perrons & Clément Mazet-Sonilhac, 2022. "Innovation Begets Innovation and Concentration: the Case of Upstream Oil & Gas in the North Sea," Working Papers hal-03791971, HAL.

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    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • L1 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance

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