IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/empleg/v4y2007i1p69-102.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Damage Caps on Malpractice Claims: Randomization Inference with Difference‐in‐Differences

Author

Listed:
  • John J. Donohue
  • Daniel E. Ho

Abstract

We use differences‐in‐differences (DID) to assess the impact of damage caps on medical malpractice claims for states adopting caps between 1991–2004. We find that conventional DID estimators exhibit acute model sensitivity. As a solution, we offer (nonparametric) covariance‐adjusted randomization inference, which incorporates information about cap adoption more directly and reduces model sensitivity. We find no evidence that caps affect the number of malpractice claims against physicians.

Suggested Citation

  • John J. Donohue & Daniel E. Ho, 2007. "The Impact of Damage Caps on Malpractice Claims: Randomization Inference with Difference‐in‐Differences," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 4(1), pages 69-102, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:empleg:v:4:y:2007:i:1:p:69-102
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1740-1461.2007.00082.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-1461.2007.00082.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1740-1461.2007.00082.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniel P. Kessler & Mark McClellan, 1996. "Do Doctors Practice Defensive Medicine?," NBER Working Papers 5466, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Bernard Black & Charles Silver & David A. Hyman & William M. Sage, 2005. "Stability, Not Crisis: Medical Malpractice Claim Outcomes in Texas, 1988–2002," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 2(2), pages 207-259, July.
    3. Ho, Daniel E. & Imai, Kosuke, 2006. "Randomization Inference With Natural Experiments: An Analysis of Ballot Effects in the 2003 California Recall Election," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 101, pages 888-900, September.
    4. Daniel Kessler & Mark McClellan, 1996. "Do Doctors Practice Defensive Medicine?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 111(2), pages 353-390.
    5. repec:reg:rpubli:305 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    7. Kessler, Daniel P. & McClellan, Mark B., 2002. "How liability law affects medical productivity," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 931-955, November.
    8. Guido W. Imbens & Paul R. Rosenbaum, 2005. "Robust, accurate confidence intervals with a weak instrument: quarter of birth and education," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 168(1), pages 109-126, January.
    9. Rosenbaum P.R., 2003. "Exact Confidence Intervals for Nonconstant Effects by Inverting the Signed Rank Test," The American Statistician, American Statistical Association, vol. 57, pages 132-138, May.
    10. Zheng, Tian & Salganik, Matthew J. & Gelman, Andrew, 2006. "How Many People Do You Know in Prison?: Using Overdispersion in Count Data to Estimate Social Structure in Networks," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 101, pages 409-423, June.
    11. Greevy, Robert & Silber, Jeffrey H. & Cnaan, Avital & Rosenbaum, Paul R., 2004. "Randomization Inference With Imperfect Compliance in the ACE-Inhibitor After Anthracycline Randomized Trial," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 99, pages 7-15, January.
    12. Moulton, Brent R, 1990. "An Illustration of a Pitfall in Estimating the Effects of Aggregate Variables on Micro Unit," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(2), pages 334-338, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Matter, Ulrich & Stutzer, Alois, 2015. "Politico-economic determinants of tort reforms in medical malpractice," Working papers 2015/02, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    2. Kyle Carlson, 2018. "Red Alert: Prenatal Stress and Plans to Close Military Bases," American Journal of Health Economics, MIT Press, vol. 4(3), pages 287-320, Summer.
    3. Myungho Paik & Bernard Black & David Hyman, 2013. "The Receding Tide of Medical Malpractice Litigation: Part 2—Effect of Damage Caps," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(4), pages 639-669, December.
    4. Zabinski, Zenon & Black, Bernard S., 2022. "The deterrent effect of tort law: Evidence from medical malpractice reform," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    5. McMichael, Benjamin, 2017. "Beyond Physicians: The Effect of Licensing and Liability Laws on the Supply of Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants," Working Papers 07538, George Mason University, Mercatus Center.
    6. Frakes, Michael D. & Frank, Matthew B. & Seabury, Seth A., 2020. "The effect of malpractice law on physician supply: Evidence from negligence-standard reforms," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    7. Matter, Ulrich & Stutzer, Alois, 2016. "The role of party politics in medical malpractice tort reforms," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 17-35.
    8. Eric Cardella & Carl Kitchens, 2017. "The impact of award uncertainty on settlement negotiations," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 20(2), pages 333-367, June.
    9. Michael D. Frakes & Matthew B. Frank & Seth A. Seabury, 2017. "The Effect of Malpractice Law on Physician Supply: Evidence from Negligence-Standard Reforms," NBER Working Papers 23446, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Michael D. Frakes & Jonathan Gruber, 2018. "Defensive Medicine: Evidence from Military Immunity," NBER Working Papers 24846, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Ali Moghtaderi & Steven Farmer & Bernard Black, 2019. "Damage Caps and Defensive Medicine: Reexamination with Patient‐Level Data," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(1), pages 26-68, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniel Carvell & Janet Currie & W. Bentley MacLeod, 2012. "Accidental death and the rule of joint and several liability," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 43(1), pages 51-77, March.
    2. Tomas J. Philipson & Seth A. Seabury & Lee M. Lockwood & Dana P. Goldman & Darius N. Lakdawalla, 2010. "Geographic Variation in Health Care: The Role of Private Markets," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 41(1 (Spring), pages 325-361.
    3. Scott Barkowski, 2017. "Does Regulation of Physicians Reduce Health Care Spending?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(4), pages 1074-1097, April.
    4. Christopher Carpenter & Sebastian Tello-Trillo, 2015. "Do 'Cheeseburger Bills' Work? Effects of Tort Reform for Fast Food," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(4).
    5. Lakdawalla, Darius N. & Seabury, Seth A., 2012. "The welfare effects of medical malpractice liability," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 356-369.
    6. Sebastian Panthöfer, 2022. "Do doctors prescribe antibiotics out of fear of malpractice?," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(2), pages 340-381, June.
    7. Daniel P. Kessler, 2011. "Evaluating the Medical Malpractice System and Options for Reform," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(2), pages 93-110, Spring.
    8. Katherine Baicker & Amitabh Chandra, 2005. "The Effect of Malpractice Liability on the Delivery of Health Care," NBER Chapters, in: Frontiers in Health Policy Research, Volume 8, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Malak, Natalie & Yang, Y. Tony, 2019. "A re-examination of the effects of tort reforms on obstetrical procedures and health outcomes," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    10. Peter Ganong & Simon Jäger, 2018. "A Permutation Test for the Regression Kink Design," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 113(522), pages 494-504, April.
    11. Olbrich, Anja, 2008. "Heterogeneous physicians, lawsuit costs, and the negligence rule," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 78-88, March.
    12. Danz, David, 2020. "Never underestimate your opponent: Hindsight bias causes overplacement and overentry into competition," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 588-603.
    13. Paola Bertoli & Veronica Grembi, 2018. "Medical Malpractice: How Legal Liability Affects Medical Decisions," Contributions to Economic Analysis, in: Health Econometrics, volume 127, pages 235-261, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    14. Patricia H. Born & J. Bradley Karl, 2016. "The Effect of Tort Reform on Medical Malpractice Insurance Market Trends," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(4), pages 718-755, December.
    15. Marie‐Cécile Fagart & Claude Fluet, 2009. "Liability insurance under the negligence rule," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 40(3), pages 486-508, September.
    16. Daniel P. Kessler & Mark B. McClellan, 2000. "Medical Liability, Managed Care, and Defensive Medicine," NBER Working Papers 7537, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Sofia Amaral-Garcia & Paola Bertoli & Veronica Grembi, 2015. "Does Experience Rating Improve Obstetric Practices? Evidence From Geographical Discontinuities in Italy," CEIS Research Paper 342, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 08 May 2015.
    18. Jennifer Arlen & W. Bentley MacLeod, 2005. "Torts, Expertise, and Authority: Liability of Physicians and Managed Care Organizations," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 36(3), pages 494-519, Autumn.
    19. Jonathan Klick & Thomas Stratmann, 2007. "Medical Malpractice Reform and Physicians in High-Risk Specialties," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(S2), pages 121-142, June.
    20. Kessler, Daniel P. & McClellan, Mark B., 2002. "How liability law affects medical productivity," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 931-955, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:empleg:v:4:y:2007:i:1:p:69-102. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1740-1461 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.