American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Quality and Accountability in Health Care Delivery: Audit-Study Evidence from Primary Care in India
American Economic Review
vol. 106,
no. 12, December 2016
(pp. 3765–99)
Abstract
We present unique audit-study evidence on health care quality in rural India, and find that most private providers lacked medical qualifications, but completed more checklist items than public providers and recommended correct treatments equally often. Among doctors with public and private practices, all quality metrics were higher in their private clinics. Market prices are positively correlated with checklist completion and correct treatment, but also with unnecessary treatments. However, public sector salaries are uncorrelated with quality. A simple model helps interpret our findings: Where public-sector effort is low, the benefits of higher diagnostic effort among private providers may outweigh costs of potential overtreatment.Citation
Das, Jishnu, Alaka Holla, Aakash Mohpal, and Karthik Muralidharan. 2016. "Quality and Accountability in Health Care Delivery: Audit-Study Evidence from Primary Care in India." American Economic Review, 106 (12): 3765–99. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20151138Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- H42 Publicly Provided Private Goods
- I11 Analysis of Health Care Markets
- I18 Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
- O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration