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Quality, Selection, and Congestion: Equilibrium Hospital Outcomes During Covid-19

Author

Listed:
  • Gautam Gowrisankaran
  • Kelli R. Marquardt
  • Robert Town

Abstract

We examine the importance of hospital quality, patient selection, and congestion in affecting equilibrium health outcomes, using Covid-19 pandemic data. Our main outcome is mortality, controlling for unobserved selection with distance instruments. Intensive care unit strain increased hospital mortality: without congestion, deaths would fall 9.6%. Patients value hospitals with high baseline quality, but their choices did not reflect capacity strain information. Equilibrium counterfactuals show that if patients were informed about capacity strain and believed quality signals were more precise, deaths would drop 3.8%. However, using more precise information but not accounting for congestion would cause Covid-19 deaths to rise 3.8%.

Suggested Citation

  • Gautam Gowrisankaran & Kelli R. Marquardt & Robert Town, 2026. "Quality, Selection, and Congestion: Equilibrium Hospital Outcomes During Covid-19," NBER Working Papers 35426, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35426
    Note: EH IO PR
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D8 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty
    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • L15 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Information and Product Quality

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