In this study, we assess practice changes made in response to the threat of tort liability in the field of obstetrics, which has one of the highest levels of premiums, claim frequency, and mean dollar value of paid claims. There is much "conventional wisdom" about effects of tort liability risk...

Using four waves of the Health and Retirement Survey (HRS) this paper tests whether longevity expectations predict actual mortality at the individual level. The results suggest longevity expectations do predict mortality reasonably well. Serious health shocks and new activity limitations do...

This paper reports the first test of how exogenous health shocks impact people's longevity expectations. The analysis exploits the panel structure of the Health and Retirement Study and tests whether smokers, former smokers and those who never smoked react differently to serious, smoking related...

This study investigates the effects of Medicaid and strategic behavior on (1) the probability of entering a nursing home, (2) amounts of formal and informal care provided elderly persons in the community, and (3) asset accumulation. We find that Medicaid subsidies increase the probabilyt of...

Nonprofit organizations may predominate when output quality is difficult to monitor. Hospital care has this characteristic. This study compared program cost and quality of care for Medicare patients hospitalized following onset of four common conditions by hospital ownership. Payments on behalf...