Productivity Dispersion in Medicine and Manufacturing
The conventional wisdom in health economics is that large differences in average productivity across US hospitals are the result of idiosyncratic features of the healthcare sector which dull the role of market forces. Strikingly, however, we find that productivity dispersion in heart attack treatmen...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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American Economic Association
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109329 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9941-6684 |
| _version_ | 1826189863769079808 |
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| author | Syverson, Chad Chandrashekhar, Amitabh Finkelstein, Amy Sacarny, Adam Jon |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics Syverson, Chad Chandrashekhar, Amitabh Finkelstein, Amy Sacarny, Adam Jon |
| author_sort | Syverson, Chad |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The conventional wisdom in health economics is that large differences in average productivity across US hospitals are the result of idiosyncratic features of the healthcare sector which dull the role of market forces. Strikingly, however, we find that productivity dispersion in heart attack treatment across hospitals is, if anything, smaller than in narrowly defined manufacturing industries such as ready-mixed concrete. While this fact admits multiple interpretations, it suggests that healthcare may have more in common with "traditional" sectors than is often assumed, and relatedly, that insights from research on productivity and allocation in other sectors may enrich analysis of healthcare. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:25:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/109329 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:25:44Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | American Economic Association |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1093292022-09-23T12:39:36Z Productivity Dispersion in Medicine and Manufacturing Syverson, Chad Chandrashekhar, Amitabh Finkelstein, Amy Sacarny, Adam Jon Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics Sloan School of Management Chandrashekhar, Amitabh Finkelstein, Amy Sacarny, Adam Jon The conventional wisdom in health economics is that large differences in average productivity across US hospitals are the result of idiosyncratic features of the healthcare sector which dull the role of market forces. Strikingly, however, we find that productivity dispersion in heart attack treatment across hospitals is, if anything, smaller than in narrowly defined manufacturing industries such as ready-mixed concrete. While this fact admits multiple interpretations, it suggests that healthcare may have more in common with "traditional" sectors than is often assumed, and relatedly, that insights from research on productivity and allocation in other sectors may enrich analysis of healthcare. 2017-05-24T19:48:51Z 2017-05-24T19:48:51Z 2016-05 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0002-8282 1944-7981 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109329 Chandra, Amitabh; Finkelstein, Amy; Sacarny, Adam and Syverson, Chad. “Productivity Dispersion in Medicine and Manufacturing.” American Economic Review 106, no. 5 (May 2016): 99–103 © 2016 American Economic Association https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9941-6684 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/aer.p20161024 American Economic Review Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Economic Association American Economic Association |
| spellingShingle | Syverson, Chad Chandrashekhar, Amitabh Finkelstein, Amy Sacarny, Adam Jon Productivity Dispersion in Medicine and Manufacturing |
| title | Productivity Dispersion in Medicine and Manufacturing |
| title_full | Productivity Dispersion in Medicine and Manufacturing |
| title_fullStr | Productivity Dispersion in Medicine and Manufacturing |
| title_full_unstemmed | Productivity Dispersion in Medicine and Manufacturing |
| title_short | Productivity Dispersion in Medicine and Manufacturing |
| title_sort | productivity dispersion in medicine and manufacturing |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109329 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9941-6684 |
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