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Gender Differences in Medical Evaluations: Evidence from Randomly Assigned Doctors

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  • Marika Cabral
  • Marcus Dillender

Abstract

Little is known about what drives gender disparities in health care and related social insurance benefits. Using data and variation from the Texas workers' compensation program, we study the impact of gender match between doctors and patients on medical evaluations and associated disability benefits. Compared to differences among their male patient counterparts, female patients randomly assigned a female doctor rather than a male doctor are 5.2 percent more likely to be evaluated as disabled and receive 8.6 percent more subsequent cash benefits on average. There is no analogous gender-match effect for male patients. Our estimates indicate that increasing the share of female patients evaluated by female doctors may substantially shrink gender gaps in medical evaluations and associated outcomes.

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  • Marika Cabral & Marcus Dillender, 2024. "Gender Differences in Medical Evaluations: Evidence from Randomly Assigned Doctors," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(2), pages 462-499, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:114:y:2024:i:2:p:462-99
    DOI: 10.1257/aer.20220349
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    Cited by:

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    2. Gallen, Yana & Wasserman, Melanie, 2023. "Does information affect homophily?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    3. Gerald J. Pruckner & Flora Stiftinger & Katrin Zocher, 2024. "When women take over: Physician gender and health care provision," Economics working papers 2024-04, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    4. Francetic, I.; & Meacock, R.; & Siciliani, L.; & Sutton, M.;, 2024. "Disorderly queues: How does unexpected demand affect queue prioritisation in emergency care?," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 24/14, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    5. Dahlstrand Rudin, Amanda, 2022. "Defying distance? The provision of services in the digital age," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118042, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Amanda Dahlstrand, 2022. "Defying distance? The provision of services in the digital age," CEP Discussion Papers dp1889, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    7. Mette Goertz & Ida Lykke Kristiansen & Tianyi Wang, 2024. "The Power of Daughters: How Physicians Family Influences Female Patients Health," CEBI working paper series 24-18, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. The Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare
    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J28 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Safety; Job Satisfaction; Related Public Policy

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