Motivation and competition in health care. (28th May 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Scott, Anthony; Sivey, Peter
• Is Part Of: Health economics. Volume 31:Number 8(2022)
• Page Start: 1695
• Page End: 1712
• Publication Date: 2022-05-28
• Subjects: competition -- financial incentives -- motivation -- physicians; Medical economics -- Periodicals; Economics, Medical -- Periodicals; Health Care Costs -- Periodicals; Health Policy -- economics -- Periodicals; Health Services -- economics -- Periodicals; 362.1
• DOI: 10.1002/hec.4533
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1057-9230

Abstract

Abstract: Non‐pecuniary sources of motivation are a strong feature of the health care sector and the impact of competitive incentives on behavior may be lower where pecuniary motivation is low. This paper measures the marginal utility of income (MUY) of physicians from a stated‐choice experiment, and examines whether this measure influences the association between competition faced by physicians and the prices they charge. We find that physicians are more likely to exploit a lack of competition with higher prices if they have a high MUY.