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What Factors Influence The Earnings Of General Practitioners And Medical Specialists? Evidence From The Medicine In Australia: Balancing Employment And Life Survey

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  • Terence Chai Cheng
  • Anthony Scott
  • Sung‐Hee Jeon
  • Guyonne Kalb
  • John Humphreys
  • Catherine Joyce

Abstract

To date, there has been little data or empirical research on the determinants of doctors' earnings despite earnings having an important role in influencing the cost of health care, decisions on workforce participation and labour supply. This paper examines the determinants of annual earnings of general practitioners (GPs) and specialists using the first wave of the Medicine in Australia: Balancing Employment and Life, a new longitudinal survey of doctors. For both GPs and specialists, earnings are higher for men, for those who are self‐employed and for those who do after‐hours or on‐call work. GPs have higher earnings if they work in larger practices, in outer regional or rural areas, and in areas with lower GP density, whereas specialists earn more if they have more working experience, spend more time in clinical work and have less complex patients. Decomposition analysis shows that the mean earnings of GPs are lower than that of specialists because GPs work fewer hours, are more likely to be female, are less likely to undertake after‐hours or on‐call work, and have lower returns to experience. Roughly 50% of the income gap between GPs and specialists is explained by differences in unobserved characteristics and returns to those characteristics. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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  • Terence Chai Cheng & Anthony Scott & Sung‐Hee Jeon & Guyonne Kalb & John Humphreys & Catherine Joyce, 2012. "What Factors Influence The Earnings Of General Practitioners And Medical Specialists? Evidence From The Medicine In Australia: Balancing Employment And Life Survey," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(11), pages 1300-1317, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:21:y:2012:i:11:p:1300-1317
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.1791
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    Cited by:

    1. Jeffrey E. Harris & Beatriz G. López-Valcárcel & Patricia Barber & Vicente Ortún, 2014. "Efficiency versus Equity in the Allocation of Medical Specialty Training Positions in Spain: A Health Policy Simulation Based on a Discrete Choice Model," NBER Working Papers 19896, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Kralj, Boris & O'Toole, Danielle & Vanstone, Meredith & Sweetman, Arthur, 2022. "The gender earnings gap in medicine: Evidence from Canada," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(10), pages 1002-1009.
    3. Jon Helgheim Holte & Peter Sivey & Birgit Abelsen & Jan Abel Olsen, 2016. "Modelling Nonlinearities and Reference Dependence in General Practitioners' Income Preferences," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(8), pages 1020-1038, August.
    4. Scott, Anthony & Witt, Julia & Humphreys, John & Joyce, Catherine & Kalb, Guyonne & Jeon, Sung-Hee & McGrail, Matthew, 2013. "Getting doctors into the bush: General Practitioners' preferences for rural location," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 33-44.
    5. Chunzhou Mu & Shiko Maruyama, 2013. "Salient Gender Difference in the Wage Elasticity of General Practitioners' Labour Supply," Discussion Papers 2013-16, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    6. Stefanie Schurer & Daniel Kuehnle & Anthony Scott & Terence C. Cheng, 2016. "A Man's Blessing or a Woman's Curse? The Family Earnings Gap of Doctors," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 385-414, July.
    7. Terence C. Cheng & Pravin K. Trivedi, 2015. "Attrition Bias in Panel Data: A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing? A Case Study Based on the Mabel Survey," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(9), pages 1101-1117, September.
    8. Mu, Chunzhou, 2015. "The age profile of the location decision of Australian general practitioners," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 183-193.
    9. Song, Jia & Cheng, Terence C., 2020. "How do gender differences in family responsibilities affect doctors' labour supply? Evidence from Australian panel data," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    10. Terence C. Cheng & Guyonne Kalb & Anthony Scott, 2018. "Public, private or both? Analyzing factors influencing the labour supply of medical specialists," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 51(2), pages 660-692, May.
    11. Guyonne Kalb & Daniel Kuehnle & Anthony Scott & Terence Chai Cheng & Sung‐Hee Jeon, 2018. "What factors affect physicians' labour supply: Comparing structural discrete choice and reduced‐form approaches," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(2), pages 101-119, February.
    12. Belinda O’Sullivan & Matthew McGrail & Tiana Gurney & Priya Martin, 2020. "A Realist Evaluation of Theory about Triggers for Doctors Choosing a Generalist or Specialist Medical Career," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-17, November.
    13. Pham, Mai & McRae, Ian, 2015. "Who provides GP after-hours care?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(4), pages 447-455.
    14. Yong, Jongsay & Scott, Anthony & Gravelle, Hugh & Sivey, Peter & McGrail, Matthew, 2018. "Do rural incentives payments affect entries and exits of general practitioners?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 197-205.
    15. Isabelle Sin & Bronwyn Bruce-Brand, 2019. "Is the pay of medical specialists in New Zealand gender biased?," Working Papers 19_21, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
    16. Kalb, Guyonne & Kühnle, Daniel & Scott, Anthony & Cheng, Terence Chai & Jeon, Sung-Hee, 2015. "What Factors Affect Doctors' Hours Decisions: Comparing Structural Discrete Choice and Reduced-Form Approaches," IZA Discussion Papers 9054, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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