We use unique data from an insurer that exclusively offers high-deductible, "consumer-directed" health plans to identify the effect of plan features, notably the spending account, on health care spending. Our results show that the marginal dollar in the spending account is entirely spent on...

The impact of ownership on the cost-efficiency of U.S. hospitals / Ryan L. Mutter, Michael D. Rosko -- Measuring and decomposing productivity change : the basics / Bert M. Balk -- Competition and market concentration / Nazmi Sari -- Efficiency and productivity changes in large urban hospitals...

Quantifying national spending on wellness and prevention / George Miller, Charles Roehrig, Paul Hughes-Cromwick, Craig Lake -- Spillover effects of prescription drug withdrawals / John Cawley, John A. Rizzo -- The psychology of nutrition messages / Heather Schofield, Sendhil Mullainathan --...

By exploiting a unique health insurance benefit design, we provide novel evidence on the causal association between outpatient and inpatient care. Our results indicate that greater outpatient spending was associated with more hospital admissions: a $100 increase in outpatient spending was...