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Testing for the Role of Prejudice in Emergency Departments Using Bounceback Rates

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  • Shamena Anwar
  • Hanming Fang

Abstract

We propose and empirically implement a test for the presence of racial prejudice among emergency department (ED) physicians based on the bounceback rates of the patients who were discharged after receiving diagnostic tests during their initial ED visits. A bounceback is defined as a return to the ED within 72 hours of being initially discharged. Based on a plausible model of physician behavior, we show that differential bounceback rates across patients of different racial groups who are discharged after receiving diagnostic tests from their ED visits are informative of the racial prejudice of the physicians. Applying the test to administrative data of ED visits from California and New Jersey, we do not find evidence of prejudice against black and Hispanic patients. Our finding suggests that, at least in the emergency department setting, taste based discrimination does not play an important role in the racial disparities in health care.

Suggested Citation

  • Shamena Anwar & Hanming Fang, 2011. "Testing for the Role of Prejudice in Emergency Departments Using Bounceback Rates," NBER Working Papers 16888, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16888
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    Cited by:

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    2. Bhattacharya, Debopam, 2013. "Evaluating treatment protocols using data combination," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 173(2), pages 160-174.
    3. Debopam Bhattacharya & Shin Kanaya & Margaret Stevens, 2017. "Are University Admissions Academically Fair?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 99(3), pages 449-464, July.
    4. Gautam Gowrisankaran & Keith Joiner & Pierre Thomas Léger, 2023. "Physician Practice Style and Healthcare Costs: Evidence from Emergency Departments," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(6), pages 3202-3219, June.
    5. Lawrence, Edward R. & Raithatha, Mehul, 2023. "Gender bias, board diversity, and firm value: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    6. Sahuguet, Nicolas & Mechoulan, Stéphane, 2011. "Assessing Racial Discrimination in Parole Release," CEPR Discussion Papers 8506, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Ilić, Dragan, 2018. "Prejudice in naturalization decisions: Theory and evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 1-18.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination

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