We estimate an insurer-specific preference function which rationalizes hospital referrals for privately-insured births … in California. The function is additively separable in: a hospital price paid by the insurer, the distance traveled, and … plan and severity-specific hospital fixed effects (capturing hospital quality). We use an inequality estimator that allows …

We estimate an insurer-specific preference function which rationalizes hospital referrals for privately-insured births … in California. The function is additively separable in: a hospital price paid by the insurer, the distance traveled, and … plan and severity-specific hospital fixed effects (capturing hospital quality). We use an inequality estimator that allows …

We examine how changes in hospital ownership to and from for-profit status affect quality and Medicare payments per … hospital stay. We hypothesize that hospitals converting to for-profit ownership boost postacquisition profitability by reducing …-profit status, mortality of patients, which is difficult for outsiders to monitor, increases while hospital profitability rises …

estimates of hospital ownership type consist of the impact of differential patient case mix (selection) and hospital cost …