IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/kan/wpaper/201708.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Did UberX Reduce Ambulance Volume?

Author

Listed:
  • Leon S. Moskatel

    (Department of Medicine, Scripps Mercy Hospital;)

  • David J.G. Slusky

    (Department of Economics, The University of Kansas;)

Abstract

Ambulances are a vital part of emergency medical services. However, they come in single, homogeneous, high intervention form, which is at times unnecessary, resulting in excessive costs for patients and insurers. In this paper, we ask whether UberX’s entry into a city caused substitution away from traditional ambulances for low risk patients, reducing overall volume. Using a city-panel over-time and leveraging that UberX enter markets sporadically over multiple years, we find that UberX entry reduced the per capital ambulance volume by at least 7%. Our result is robust to numerous specifications.

Suggested Citation

  • Leon S. Moskatel & David J.G. Slusky, 2017. "Did UberX Reduce Ambulance Volume?," WORKING PAPERS SERIES IN THEORETICAL AND APPLIED ECONOMICS 201708, University of Kansas, Department of Economics, revised Oct 2017.
    • Handle: RePEc:kan:wpaper:201708
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www2.ku.edu/~kuwpaper/2017Papers/201708.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. M. Keith Chen & Judith A. Chevalier & Peter E. Rossi & Emily Oehlsen, 2019. "The Value of Flexible Work: Evidence from Uber Drivers," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(6), pages 2735-2794.
    2. Zarek C. Brot-Goldberg & Amitabh Chandra & Benjamin R. Handel & Jonathan T. Kolstad, 2017. "What does a Deductible Do? The Impact of Cost-Sharing on Health Care Prices, Quantities, and Spending Dynamics," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 132(3), pages 1261-1318.
    3. Courtemanche, Charles & Friedson, Andrew & Koller, Andrew P. & Rees, Daniel I., 2019. "The affordable care act and ambulance response times," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    4. Joseph J. Doyle Jr. & John A. Graves & Jonathan Gruber & Samuel A. Kleiner, 2015. "Measuring Returns to Hospital Care: Evidence from Ambulance Referral Patterns," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 123(1), pages 170-214.
    5. Hall, Jonathan D. & Palsson, Craig & Price, Joseph, 2018. "Is Uber a substitute or complement for public transit?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 36-50.
    6. Nelson Erik & Sadowsky Nicole, 2019. "Estimating the Impact of Ride-Hailing App Company Entry on Public Transportation Use in Major US Urban Areas," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 19(1), pages 1-21, January.
    7. Jason M. Lindo & Analisa Packham, 2017. "How Much Can Expanding Access to Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptives Reduce Teen Birth Rates?," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 348-376, August.
    8. Carrie Colla & Julie Bynum & Andrea Austin & Jonathan Skinner, 2016. "Hospital Competition, Quality, and Expenditures in the U.S. Medicare Population," NBER Working Papers 22826, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Justin Wolfers, 2006. "Did Unilateral Divorce Laws Raise Divorce Rates? A Reconciliation and New Results," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1802-1820, December.
    10. Doyle, Joseph J. & Graves, John A. & Gruber, Jonathan, 2017. "Uncovering waste in US healthcare," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 25-39.
    11. Peter Cohen & Robert Hahn & Jonathan Hall & Steven Levitt & Robert Metcalfe, 2016. "Using Big Data to Estimate Consumer Surplus: The Case of Uber," NBER Working Papers 22627, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Chris Sampson’s journal round-up for 12th August 2019
      by Chris Sampson in The Academic Health Economists' Blog on 2019-08-12 11:00:31
    2. Uber, Lyft and the Urgency of Saving Money on Ambulances
      by ? in The Incidental Economist on 2018-10-03 11:00:00
    3. With No Legal Guardrails for Patients, Ambulances Drive Surprise Medical Billing
      by ? in Physician's Weekly on 2020-09-15 04:04:04

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Courtemanche, Charles & Friedson, Andrew & Koller, Andrew P. & Rees, Daniel I., 2019. "The affordable care act and ambulance response times," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    2. Eleftheria Kontou & Noreen McDonald, 2021. "Associating ridesourcing with road safety outcomes: Insights from Austin, Texas," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(3), pages 1-18, March.
    3. Teltser, Keith & Lennon, Conor & Burgdorf, Jacob, 2021. "Do ridesharing services increase alcohol consumption?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    4. Zhou, You, 2020. "Ride-sharing, alcohol consumption, and drunk driving," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    5. Charles Courtemanche & Andrew Friedson & Daniel I. Rees, 2018. "Ambulance Utilization in New York City after the Implementation of the Affordable Care Act," NBER Working Papers 24480, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Thomas Tacker, 2021. "Competitive Safety in Uber versus the Taxi Industry," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 36(Fall 2021), pages 49-66.
    7. Barreto, Yuri & Silveira Neto, Raul da Mota & Carazza, Luis, 2021. "Uber and traffic safety: Evidence from Brazilian cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    8. Chaudhary, Sookti & Davis, Alison & Troske, Kenneth & Troske, SuZanne, 2019. "Hospital Closures and Short-Run Change in Ambulance Call Times," IZA Discussion Papers 12797, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    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. Berger, Thor & Chen, Chinchih & Frey, Carl Benedikt, 2018. "Drivers of disruption? Estimating the Uber effect," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 197-210.
    2. Agrawal, David R. & Zhao, Weihua, 2023. "Taxing Uber," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 221(C).
    3. Xavier Fageda, 2021. "Measuring the impact of ride‐hailing firms on urban congestion: The case of Uber in Europe," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 100(5), pages 1230-1253, October.
    4. Rick Grahn & Sean Qian & H. Scott Matthews & Chris Hendrickson, 2021. "Are travelers substituting between transportation network companies (TNC) and public buses? A case study in Pittsburgh," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 977-1005, April.
    5. Teltser, Keith & Lennon, Conor & Burgdorf, Jacob, 2021. "Do ridesharing services increase alcohol consumption?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    6. Lam, Chungsang Tom & Liu, Meng & Hui, Xiang, 2021. "The geography of ridesharing: A case study on New York City," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    7. Barrios, John M. & Hochberg, Yael V. & Yi, Hanyi, 2022. "Launching with a parachute: The gig economy and new business formation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(1), pages 22-43.
    8. Yoshifumi Konishi & Akari Ono, 2024. "Is Ride-sharing Good for Environment?," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2024-014, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.
    9. Junhong Chu & Yige Duan & Xianling Yang & Li Wang, 2021. "The Last Mile Matters: Impact of Dockless Bike Sharing on Subway Housing Price Premium," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(1), pages 297-316, January.
    10. John M. Barrios & Yael Hochberg & Hanyi Yi, 2020. "The Cost of Convenience: Ridehailing and Traffic Fatalities," NBER Working Papers 26783, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Elena Lucchese, 2024. "How important are delays in treatment for health outcomes? The case of ambulance response time and cardiovascular events," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(4), pages 652-673, April.
    12. Yongwook Paik & Christos A. Makridis, 2023. "The social value of a ridesharing platform: a hedonic pricing approach," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 64(5), pages 2125-2150, May.
    13. Jonathan Gruber & Johanna Catherine Maclean & Bill J. Wright & Eric S. Wilkinson & Kevin Volpp, 2016. "The Impact of Increased Cost-sharing on Utilization of Low Value Services: Evidence from the State of Oregon," NBER Working Papers 22875, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Brown, Anne, 2022. "Not all fees are created equal: Equity implications of ride-hail fee structures and revenues," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 1-10.
    15. Amitabh Chandra & Courtney Coile & Corina Mommaerts, 2023. "What Can Economics Say about Alzheimer's Disease?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 61(2), pages 428-470, June.
    16. Kuan-Ming Chen & Claire Ding & John A. List & Magne Mogstad, 2020. "Reservation Wages and Workers’ Valuation of Job Flexibility: Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment," NBER Working Papers 27807, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Johannes S. Kunz & Carol Propper & Kevin E. Staub & Rainer Winkelmann, 2023. "Assessing the Quality of Public Services: For-profits, Chains, and Concentration in the Hospital Market," Papers 2023-01, Centre for Health Economics, Monash University.
    18. Wang, Sicheng & Du, Rui & Lee, Annie S., 2024. "Ridesourcing regulation and traffic speeds: A New York case," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    19. Rudy Douven & Minke Remmerswaal & Tobias Vervliet, 2019. "Treatment responses of mental health care providers after a demand shock," CPB Discussion Paper 404, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    20. Thomas J. Weinandy & Michael J. Ryan, 2021. "Flexible Ubers and Fixed Taxis: the Effect of Fuel Prices on Car Services," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 139-168, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Uber; Ambulances; Emergencies;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • L91 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Transportation: General

    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:kan:wpaper:201708. 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: Professor Zongwu Cai (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deuksus.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.