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Imitative Pricing: the Importance of Neighborhood Effects in Physicians’ Consultation Prices

Author

Listed:
  • Benjamin Montmartin

    (SKEMA Business School, Université Côte-d'Azur)

  • Marcos Herrera-Gómez

    (IEDLE-UNSa/CONICET)

Abstract

During the last 30 years in France, concerns about healthcare access have grown as physician fees have increased threefold. In this paper, we developed an innovative structural framework to provide new insights into free-billing physician pricing behavior. We test our theoretical framework using a unique geolocalized database covering more than 4,000 private practitioners in three specializations (ophthalmology, gynecology and pediatrics). Our main findings highlight a low price competition environment driven by local imitative pricing between physicians, which increases with competition density. This evidence in the context ofgrowing spatial concentration and an increasing share of free-billing physicians calls for new policies to limitadditional fees.

Suggested Citation

  • Benjamin Montmartin & Marcos Herrera-Gómez, 2022. "Imitative Pricing: the Importance of Neighborhood Effects in Physicians’ Consultation Prices," Working Papers 123, Red Nacional de Investigadores en Economía (RedNIE).
    • Handle: RePEc:aoz:wpaper:123
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    File URL: https://rednie.eco.unc.edu.ar/files/DT/123.pdf
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Imitative pricing; Health care access; Local competition; Spatial eects.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health
    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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