Spatial Competition and Quality: Evidence from the English Family Doctor Market

Research output: Working paperDiscussion paper

Abstract

We examine whether family doctor firms in England respond to local competition by increasing their quality. We measure quality in terms of clinical performance and patient-reported satisfaction to capture its multi-dimensional nature. We use a panel covering 8 years for over 8000 English general practices, allowing us to control for unobserved local area effects. We measure competition by the number of rival doctors within a small distance. We find that increases in local competition are associated with increases in clinical quality and patient satisfaction, particularly for firms with lower quality. However, the magnitude of the effect is small.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationYork, UK
PublisherCentre for Health Economics, University of York
Number of pages38
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2018

Publication series

NameCHE Research Paper
PublisherCentre for Health Economics, University of York
No.151

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