After Midnight: A Regression Discontinuity Design in Length of Postpartum Hospital Stays
Name
Doyle_After Midnight.pdf
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3.43 MB
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Adobe PDF
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95300c287354438d99eae8e4b14082fd
Author(s)
Almond, Douglas
Doyle, Joseph J.
Date Issued
August 2011
Journal
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
Publisher
American Economic Association
Citation
Almond, Douglas, and Joseph J Doyle. “After Midnight: A Regression Discontinuity Design in Length of Postpartum Hospital Stays.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 3, no. 3 (August 2011): 1–34.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Estimates of moral hazard in health insurance markets can be confounded by adverse selection. This paper considers a plausibly exogenous source of variation in insurance coverage for childbirth in California. We find that additional health insurance coverage induces substantial extensions in length of hospital stay for mother and newborn. However, remaining in the hospital longer has no effect on readmissions or mortality, and the estimates are precise. Our results suggest that for uncomplicated births, minimum insurance mandates incur substantial costs without detectable health benefits.
MIT Department
Sloan School of Management
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.3.3.1
