Home
 /  / 
Medical Workforce

Medical Workforce




5. Areas for Future Research

We conclude by highlighting a few areas where future research would be valuable. Most of the existing literature on the medical workforce focuses on the US market, and this is particularly true with respect to estimates of labor supply elasticities. Given the importance of institutions and incentives on labor supply and demand, studies that examine non-US markets with differently structured health care systems would help confirm whether the existing findings can be generalized.

One of the most vexing policy challenges is how to improve the value of health care spending. One strategy is to encourage providers to modify the health production function in order to produce greater health at current spending levels, or to spend less without reducing health. To address this challenge policy makers and providers need to understand the health care production function, including how easily inputs can be substituted for one another, how inputs respond to changes in input prices, and how inputs respond to changes in how output is reimbursed. The existing literature on the health care production function is pretty basic and hampered by concerns regarding how to properly measure input and output quality. Finally, new ideas from labor economics on the management of human resources and the motivation of agents could be fruitfully applied to labor supply and demand in health care.




References:

  1. Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (1996). Graduate medical education Directory, 1996-1997.
  2. Acemoglu, D. & Finkelstein, A. (2008). Input and technology choices in regulated industries: Evidence from the health care sector. Journal of Political Economy, 116(5), 837-880.
  3. Acemoglu, D., Finkelstein, A., & Notowidigdo, M. J. (2009). Income and health spending: Evidence from oil price shocks. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 14744.
  4. Akerlof, G. A. (1970). The market for ‘lemons’: Quality uncertainty and the market mechanism. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 84, 488500.
  5. Altarum Institute (2010). Labor Brief #10-09, October 15. , https://altarum.org/.
  6. Anderson, G. M., Halcoussis, D., Johnson, L., & Lowenberg, A. D. (2000). Regulatory barriers to entry in the healthcare industry: The case of alternative medicine. Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 40, 485-502.
  7. Antonazzo, E., Scott, A., Skatun, D., & Elliott, R. F. (2003). The labour market for nursing: A review of the labour supply literature. Health Economics, 12, 465-478.
  8. Arrow, K. J. (1963). Uncertainty and the welfare economics of medical care. American Economic Review, 53(5), 941-973.
  9. Askildsen, J. E., Baltagi, B. H., & Holmas, T. H. (2003). Wage policy in the health care sector: A panel data analysis of nurses’ labor supply. Health Economics, 12, 705-719.
  10. Baltagi, B., Bratberg, E., & Holma˚s, T. H. (2005). A panel data study of physicians’ labor supply: The case of Norway. Health Economics, 14, 1035-1045.
  11. Barer, M. L. & Stoddart, G. L. (1991). Toward integrated medical resource policies for Canada. Report prepared for the Federal/Provincial and Territorial Conference of Deputy Ministers of Health.
  12. Bazzoli, G. J. (1985). Does educational indebtedness affect physician specialty choice? Journal of Health Economics, 4, 119.
  13. Besley, T. & Ghatak, M. (2005). Competition and incentives with motivated agents. American Economic Review, 95(3), 616-636.
  14. Bhattacharya, J. (2005). Specialty selection and lifetime returns to specialization within medicine. Journal of Human Resources, 40(1), 115-143.
  15. Bilodeau, D., Cremieux, P. -Y., & Ouellette, P. (2000). Hospital cost function in a non market healthcare system. Review of Economics and Statistics, 82(3), 489-498.
  16. Bloom, N. & Van Reenen, J. (2007). Measuring and explaining management practices across firms and countries. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122(4), 1341-1408.
  17. Bloom, N., Propper, C., Seiler, S., & Van Reenen, J. (2010). The impact of competition on management quality: Evidence from public hospitals. NBERWorking Paper No. 16032.
  18. Blumenthal, D. (2004). New steam from an old cauldron—the physician-supply debate. New England Journal of Medicine, 350(17), 1780-1787.
  19. Bodenheimer, T. & Pham, H. H. (2010). Primary care: Current problems and proposed solutions. Health Affairs, 29(5), 799-805.
  20. Bolton, P. & Dewatripont, M. (2005). Contract theory. Cambridge: MIT Press.
  21. Bresnahan, T. F. & Reiss, P. C. (1991). Entry and competition in concentrated markets. Journal of Political Economy, 99(5), 977-1009.
  22. Bond, S. & Van Reenen, J. (2008). Micro-econometric models of investment and employment. In J. Heckman, & E. Leamer (Eds.), Handbook of econometrics (Vol. 6A, pp. 4417-4498).
  23. Borjas, G. (2000). Labor economics. Boston, MA: Irwin/McGraw-Hill.
  24. Brown, D. M. (1988). Do physicians underutilize aides. Journal of Human Resources, 23, 342-355.
  25. Brown, D. M. & Lapan, H. E. (1979). The supply of physicians’ services. Economic Inquiry, 17, 269-279.
  26. Brown, M. C. (1989). Empirical determinants of physician incomes evidence from Canadian data. Empirical Economics, 14(4), 273-289.
  27. Buerhaus, P. I., Auerbach, D. I., & Staiger, D. O. (2009). The recent surge in nurse employment: Causes and implications. Health Affairs-Web Exclusive 657-668.
  28. Buerhaus, P. I., Staiger, D. O., & Auerbach, D. I. (2007). The future of the nursing workforce in the United States: data, trends, and implications. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishing.
  29. Cebul, R. D., Rebitzer, J. B., Taylor, L. J., & Votruba, M. (2008). Organizational fragmentation and care quality in the U.S. health care system. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 22(4), 93-113.
  30. Clark, A., & Milcent, C. (2008). Public employment and political pressure: The case of French hospitals. Paris School of Economics, Discussion Paper No. 2008-18.
  31. Cooper, R. A. & Aiken, L. A. (2001). Human inputs: The health care workforce and medical markets. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 26(5), 925-937.
  32. Cooper, R. A., Getzen, T. E., McKee, H. J., & Laud, P. (2002). Economic and demographic trends signal an impending physician shortage. Health Affairs, 21(January/February), 140-154.
  33. Cordes, D. W., Doherty, N., & Lopez, R. (2002). Assessing the economic return of specializing in orthodontics or oral and maxillofacial surgery. Journal of the American Dental Association, 132, 1679-1684.
  34. Crossley, T. F., Hurley, J., & Jeon, S.-H. (2006). Physician labour supply in Canada: A cohort analysis. Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population, SEDAP Research Paper No. 162.
  35. Danzon, P. M. (2000). Liability for medical practice. In A. J. Culyer, & J. P Newhouse (Eds.), Handbook of health economics (Vol. 1). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
  36. DeFelice, L. C. & Bradford, D. W. (1997). Relative inefficiencies in production between solo and group practice physicians. Health Economics, 6, 455-465.
  37. Doyle, J. J., Ewer, S. M., & Wagner, T. H. (2010). Returns to physician human capital: Evidence from patients randomized to physician teams. Journal of Health Economics, 29, 866-882.
  38. Dranove, D. & Jin, G. Z. (2010). Quality disclosure and certification: Theory and practice. NBER Working Paper 15644.
  39. Eckstein, Z., Weiss, Y., & Fleising, A. (1988). University policies under varying market conditions: The training of electrical engineers. Economics of Education Review, 7(4), 393-403.
  40. Elliott, R. F., Ma, A. H. Y., Scott, A., Bell, D., & Roberts, E. (2007). Geographically differentiated pay in the labour market for nurses. Journal of Health Economics, 26, 190-212.
  41. Encinosa, W. E., Gaynor, M., & Rebitzer, J. B. (2007). The sociology of groups and the economics of incentives; theory and evidence on compensation systems. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 62, 187-214.
  42. Epstein, A., Ketcham, J., & Nicholson, S. (2010). RAND Journal of Economics, 41(4), 811-834.
  43. Escarce, J. (1996). Using physician practice cost functions in payment policy: The problem of endogeneity bias. Inquiry, 33, 66-78.
  44. Escarce, J., Polsky, D., Wozniak, G., Pauly, M., & Kletke, P. (1998). Health maintenance organization penetration and the practice location choices of new physicians. Medical Care, 36, 1555-1566.
  45. Escarce, J. J. & Pauly, M. V. (1998). Physician opportunity costs in physician practice cost functions. Journal of Health Economics, 17, 129-151.
  46. Esmail, N. (2005). Canada’s physician shortage: Problem solved, or disaster in the making? Fraser Forum, May, 15-20.
  47. Fehr, E. & Schmidt, K. M. (2006). The economics of fairness, reciprocity and altruism: Experimental evidence. In S. Kolm & J. M. Ythier (Eds.), Handbook of the economics of giving, altruism and reciprocity (Vol. 1). New York: North Holland.
  48. Feldstein, M. S. (1970). The rising price of physician’s services. Review of Economics and Statistics, 52(2), 121-133.
  49. Francois, P. (2000). “Public service motivation” as an argument for government provision. Journal of Public Economics, 78(3), 275-299.
  50. Francois, P. & Vlassopoulos, M. (2008). Pro-social of social services motivation and delivery. CESifo Economic Studies, 54(1), 22-54.
  51. Frank, R. G. (1985). Pricing and location of physician services in mental health. Inquiry, 38, 115-133.
  52. Freeman, R. B. (1976). A cobweb model of the supply and starting salary of new engineers. Industrial Labor Relations Review, 29(2), 236-248.
  53. Friedman, M. & Kuznets, S. (1945). Income from independent professional practice. New York: National Bureau of Economic Research.
  54. Frijters, P., Shields, M. A., & Wheatley Price, S. (2007). Investigating the quitting decision of nurses: Panel data evidence from the British National Health Services. Health Economics, 16, 57-73.
  55. Gagne, R. & Leger, P. T. (2005). Determinants of physicians’ decisions to specialize. Health Economics, 14, 721-735.
  56. Ganem, J. L., Beran, R. L., & Krakower, J. K. (1995). Review of US medical school finances, 1993 2 JAMA, 274(9), 723-730.
  57. Garicano, L. & Hubbard, T. N. (2007). Managerial leverage is limited by the extent of the market: Hierarchies, specialization, and the utilization of lawyers’ human capital. Journal of Law and Economics, 50, 143.
  58. Garicano, L. & Hubbard, T. N. (2009). Specialization, firms and markets: The division of labor within and between law firms. Journal of Law, Economics, and Organizations, 25, 339-371.
  59. Garicano, L. & Santos, T. (2004). Referrals. American Economic Review, 94(3), 500-525.
  60. Gaynor, M. (1989). Competition within the firm: Theory plus some evidence from medical group practice. RAND Journal of Economics, 20, 59-76.
  61. Gaynor, M. & Gertler, P. (1995). Moral hazard and risk spreading in medical partnerships. RAND Journal of Economics, 26, 591-613.
  62. Gaynor, M. & Pauly, M. V. (1990). Compensation and productive efficiency in partnerships: Evidence from medical group practice. Journal of Political Economy, 98(3), 544-573.
  63. Gaynor, M., Kleiner, S., & Vogt, W. B. (2011). Analysis of hospital production: An output index approach. Mimeo.
  64. Getzen, T. E. (1984). A “brand name firm” theory of medical group practice. Journal of Industrial Economics, 33, 199-215.
  65. Gibbons, R. & Roberts, J. (2008). The handbook of organizational economics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  66. Gillis, K. D., Lee, D. W., Mandy, D. M., & Willke, R. J. (1991). The technical structure of physician practice costs: Estimation results and implications for Medicare payment. Paper presented at the APHA Meetings, Atlanta, GA, November.
  67. Glied, S., Prabhu, A. G., & Edelman, N. (2009). The cost of primary care doctors. Forum for Health Economics & Policy, 12(1), 123.
  68. Goodman, D. C. & Fisher, E. S. (2008). Physician workforce crisis? Wrong diagnosis, wrong prescription. New England Journal of Medicine, 358(16), 1658-1661.
  69. Gregg, P., Grout, P., Ratcliffe, A., Smith, S., & Windmeijer, F. (2008). how important is pro-social behaviour in the delivery of public services. CMPO, University of Bristol, Working Paper 08/197.
  70. Grossman, M. (1972). On the concept of health capital and the demand for health. Journal of Political Economy, 80, 223-255.
  71. Grytten, J. & Sorensen, R. (2003). Practice variation and physician-specific effects. Journal of Health Economics, 22(3), 403-418.
  72. Gunning, T. S. & Sickles, R. C. (2011). A multi-product cost function for physician private practices. Journal of Productivity Analysis, 35(2), 119-128.
  73. Haber, S. G., Zwanziger, J., Thorpe, K. E., & Newhouse, J. P. (1992). Hospital expenditures in the United States and Canada: Do hospital worker wages explain the differences? Journal of Health Economics, 11, 453-465.
  74. Hall, E., Propper, C., & Van Reenen, J. (2008). Can pay regulation kill? Panel data evidence on the effect of labor markets on hospital performance. NBERWorking Paper 13776.
  75. Hall, T. D. & Lindsay, C. M. (1980). Medical schools: Producers of what? Sellers to whom? Journal of Law and Economics, 23(1), 55-80.
  76. Hamermesh, D. S. (1986). The demand for labor in the long run. In O. Ashenfelter, & R. Layard (Eds.), Handbook of labor economics. Amsterdam: North-Holland.
  77. Hamermesh, D. S. (1993). Labor demand. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
  78. Health Resources and Services Administration (2006). Physician supply and demand: Projections to 2020. US Department of Health and Human Services, Bureau of Health Professions.
  79. Holma˚s, T. H. (2002). Keeping nurses at work: A duration analysis. Health Economics, 11(6), 493-503.
  80. Holmstrom, B. (1982). Moral hazard in teams. The Bell Journal of Economics, 13, 324-340.
  81. Hu, T. & Yang, B. M. (1988). The demand for and supply of supply of physician services in the US: A disequilibrium analysis. Applied Economics, 20, 995-1006.
  82. Huckman, R. & Pisano, G. (2006). The firm specificity of individual performance: Evidence from cardiac surgery. Management Science, 52, 473-488.
  83. Humphris, A., Kleiner, M. M., & Koumenta, M. (2011). How does government regulate occupations in the UK and US? Issues and policy implications. In Labour Market Policy for the 21st Century. Oxford University Press.
  84. Iglehart, J. K. (2008). Grassroots activism and the pursuit of an expanded physician supply. New England Journal of Medicine, 358(16), 1741-1749.
  85. Jacobson, P. D., Parker, L. E., & Coulter, I. D. (1998). Nurse practitioners and physician assistants as primary care providers in institutional settings. Inquiry, 35(4), 432-446.
  86. Jetha, S. A. (2002). The economics of occupational licensing and dental practitioners. London School of Economics. Masters Thesis.
  87. Johnson, E. (2010). Ability, learning and the career path of cardiac specialists. Working Paper.
  88. Jones, R. F. & Korn, D. (1997). On the cost of educating a medical student. Academic Medicine, 72(3), 200-210.
  89. Kessel, R. A. (1958). Price discrimination in medicine. Journal of Law and Economics, 1, 20-53.
  90. Kleiner, M. M. (2000). Occupational licensing. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14(4), 189-202.
  91. Kleiner, M. M. (2006). Licensing occupations: Ensuring quality or restricting competition? Kalamazoo, MI: W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
  92. Kleiner, M. M. & Krueger, A. B. (2009). Analyzing the extent and influence of occupational licensing on the labor market. NBERWorking Paper 14979.
  93. Kleiner, M. M. & Kudrle, R. T. (2000). Does regulation affect economic outcomes? The case of dentistry. Journal of Law and Economics, 43, 547-582.
  94. Kolstad, J. (2009). Information and quality when motivation is intrinsic: Evidence from surgeon report cards. Mimeo.
  95. Kugler, A. D. & Sauer, R. M. (2005). Doctors without borders? Relicensing requirements and negative selection in the market for physicians. Journal of Labor Economics, 23(3), 437-465.
  96. Lazear, E. & Oyer, P. (2009). Personnel economics. In E. Gibbons & D. J. Roberts (Eds.), Handbook of organizational economics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  97. Leland, H. E. (1979). Quacks, lemons, and licensing: A theory of minimum quality standards. Journal of Political Economy, 87(6), 1328-1346.
  98. Long, M. C., Goldfarb, M. G., & Goldfarb, R. S. (2008). Explanations for persistent nursing shortages. Forum for Health Economics & Policy, 11(2), 135.
  99. MaCurdy, T. E. & Pencavel, J. H. (1986). Testing between competing models of wage and employment determination in unionized markets. Journal of Political Economy, 94(3), S3-S39.
  100. Mariolis, A., et al. (2007). General practice as a career choice among undergraduate medical students in Greece. BMC medical education, https://bmcmededuc.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1472-6920-7-15.
  101. McGuire, T. G. (2000). Physician agency. In A. J. Cuyler & J. P. Newhouse (Eds.), Handbook of health economics (Vol. 1A). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
  102. McGuire, T. G. & Pauly, M. V. (1991). Physician response to fee changes with multiple payers. Journal of Health Economics, 10, 385-410.
  103. Meltzer, D. & Chung, J. W. (2010). Coordination, switching costs and the division of labor in general medicine: An economic explanation for the emergence of hospitalists in the United States.” NBER Working Paper 16040.
  104. Meltzer, D. O. (2001). Hospitalists and the doctorpatient relationship. Journal of Legal Studies, 30, 589-606.
  105. Morris, S. & McGuire, A. (2002). The private net present value and private internal rate of return to becoming a nurse in Great Britain. Applied Economics, 34(17), 2189-2200.
  106. Mott, D. A., Kreling, D. H., & Cain, G. G. (1995). The relationship between internal rates of return, pharmacist supply and applications and admissions: A case study in Wisconsin. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 59, 59-66.
  107. Newhouse, J. P., et al. (1982). Does the geographical distribution of physicians reflect market failure? Bell Journal of Economics, 13, 493-505.
  108. Nicholson, S. (2002). Physician specialty choice under uncertainty. Journal of Labor Economics, 20(4), 816-847.
  109. Nicholson, S. (2003). Barriers to entering medical specialties. NBERWorking Paper 9649.
  110. Nicholson, S. (2008). Medical career choices and rates of return. In F. A. Sloan & H. Kasper (Eds.), Incentives and choice in health and health care. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  111. Nicholson, S. (2009). Will the United States have a shortage of physicians in 10 years? Changes in Health Care Financing & Organization report: http://www.hcfo.org/.
  112. Nicholson, S. & Song, D. (2001). The incentive effects of the Medicare indirect medical education policy. Journal of Health Economics, 20(6), 909-933.
  113. Nicholson, S. & Souleles, N. (2001). Physician income expectations and specialty choice. NBER Working Paper 8536.
  114. Noether, M. (1986). The growing supply of physicians: Has the market become more competitive? Journal of Labor Economics, 4(4), 503-537.
  115. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Health Data (2009). ,oecd. org/>, Accessed October 2010.
  116. Pencavel, J. (1984). The tradeoff between wages and employment in trade union objectives. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 99(2), 215-231.
  117. Phelps, C. E. (2000). Information diffusion and best practice adoption. In A. J. Cuyler & J. P. Newhouse (Eds.), Handbook of health economics. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science.
  118. Phelps, C. E. (2010). Health economics (4th ed.). New York: Addison-Wesley.
  119. Polsky, D., Kletke, P. R., Wozniak, G. D., & Escarce, J. J. (2000). HMO penetration and the geographic mobility of practicing physicians. Journal of Health Economics, 19(5), 793-809.
  120. Pope, G. C. & Burge, R. T. (1992). Inefficiencies in physician practices. Advances in Health Economics and Health Services Research, 13, 129-164.
  121. Pope, G. C. & Burge, R. T. (1995). The marginal practice cost of physicians’ services. Journal of Socioeconomic Planning Science, 29, 116.
  122. Propper, C. & Van Reenen, J. (2010). Can pay regulation kill? Panel data evidence on the effects of labor markets on hospital performance. Journal of Political Economy, 118(2), 222-273.
  123. Ramseyer, J. M. (2008). Talent and expertise under universal health insurance: The case of cosmetic surgery in Japan. American Law & Economics Association Annual Meetings, Paper 44.
  124. Reinhardt, U. (1975). Physician productivity and demand for health manpower. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger Publishing Company.
  125. Reinhardt, U. E. (1972). A production function for physician services. Review of Economics and Statistics, 54(1), 55-66.
  126. Rizzo, J. & Blumenthal, D. (1994). Physician labor supply: Do income effects matter? Journal of Health Economics, 13, 433-453.
  127. Roos, N. P., Flowerdew, G., Wajda, A., & Tate, R. B. (1986). Variations in physicians’ hospitalization practices: A population-based study in Manitoba, Canada. American Journal of Public Health, 76(1), 45-51.
  128. Rosen, S. (1986). The theory of equalizing differences. In O. Ashenfelter & R. Layard (Eds.), Handbook of labor economics (Vol. 1, pp. 641-692). Elsevier Science Publishers BV.
  129. Ryoo, J. & Rosen, S. (2004). The engineering labor market. Journal of Political Economy, 112(1), S110-S140.
  130. Sæther, E. M. (2005). Physicians’ labor supply: The wage impact on hours and practice combinations. Labour, 19(4), 673-703.
  131. Schoen, C., Osborn, R., Doty, M. M., Squires, D., Peugh, J., & Applebaum, S. (2009). A survey of primary care physicians in eleven countries, 2009: Perspectives on care, costs, and experiences. Health Affairs, w1171-w1183.
  132. Schut, F. T. (1995). Health care reform in the Netherlands: Balancing corporatism, statism, and market mechanisms. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 20(3), 615-652.
  133. Shapiro (1986). Investment, moral hazard, and occupational licensing. Review of Economic Studies, 53, 843-862.
  134. Shields, M. A. (2004). Addressing nurse shortages: What can policy makers learn from the econometric evidence on nurse labour supply? Economic Journal, 114, F464-F498.
  135. Showalter, M. H. & Thurston, M. (1997). Taxes and labor supply of high-income physicians. Journal of Public Economics, 66, 73-97.
  136. Siow, A. (1984). Occupational choice under uncertainty. Econometrica, 52, 631-645.
  137. Sloan, F. A. (1970). Lifetime earnings and physicians’ choice of specialty. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 24, 47-56.
  138. Sloan, F. (1975). Physician labor supply behaviour in the short run. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 28(2), 549-569.
  139. Smith, P. C., Mossialos, E., Papanicolas, I., & Leatherman, S. (Eds.) (2009). Performance measurement for health system improvement: Experiences, challenges and prospects. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  140. Staiger, D. O., Auerbach, D. I., & Buerhaus, P. I. (2010). Trends in the work hours of physicians in the United States. JAMA, 303(8), 747-753.
  141. Staiger, D., Spetz, J., & Phibbs, C. (1999). Is there monopsony in the labor market? Evidence from a natural experiment. NBER Working Paper Series, Working Paper 7258.
  142. Stark, A. (2007). Which fields pay, which fields don’t? An examination of the returns to university education in Canada by detailed field of study. Department of Finance, Canada, mimeo.
  143. Thornton, J. (1998). The labour supply behaviour of self-employed solo practice physicians. Applied Economics, 30(1), 85-94.
  144. Thornton, J. & Eakin, K. B. (1997). The utility-maximizing self-employed physician. Journal of Human Resources, 32(1), 98-128.
  145. Timmons, E. J. & Thornton, R. J. (2008). The effects of licensing on the wages of radiologic technologists. Journal of Labor Research, 29(4), 333-346.
  146. Toyabe, S. (2009). Trend in geographic distribution of physicians in Japan. International Journal for Equity in Health, 8(5), 18.
  147. Tyrell, L. & Dauphinee, D. (1999). Task force on physician supply in Canada. Report prepared for the Canadian Medical Forum Talk Force.
  148. Vahovich, S. (1977). Physicians’ supply decisions by specialty: TSLS model. Journal of Health Economics, 13, 433-453.
  149. Vaughn, B. T., DeVrieze, S. R., Reed, S. D., & Schulman, K. A. (2010). Can we close the income and wealth gap between specialists and primary care physicians? Health Affairs, 29(5), 933-940.
  150. Vita, M. (1990). Exploring hospital production relationship with flexible functional forms. Journal of Health Economics, 9, 121.
  151. Wanchek, T. (2009). Dental hygiene regulation and access to oral health care: Assessing the variation across the U.S. States. Working Paper.
  152. Weeks, W. B. & Wallace, A. E. (2002). The more things change: Revisiting a comparison of educational costs and incomes of physicians and other professionals. Academic Medicine, 77, 312-319.
  153. Weeks, W. B., Wallace, A. E., Wallace, M. M., & Welch, H. G. (1994). A comparison of the educational costs and incomes of physicians and other professionals. New England Journal of Medicine, 330(18), 1280-1286.
  154. Welch, H. G., Miller, M. E., & Welch, W. P. (1994). Physician profiling: An analysis of inpatient practice patterns in Florida and Oregon. New England Journal of Medicine, 330(9), 607-612.
  155. Whalley, D., Gravelle, H., & Sibbald, B. (2008). Effect of the new contract on GPs’ working lives and perceptions of quality of care. British Journal of General Practice, January, 8-14.
  156. White, W. D. (1978). The impact of occupational licensure of clinical laboratory personnel. Journal of Human Resources, 13(1), 91-102.
  157. White, W. D. (1980). Mandatory licensure of registered nurses: Introduction and impact. In S. Rottenberg (Ed.), Occupational licensure and regulation. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute.
  158. White, W. D. & Marmor, T. R. (1982). New occupations, old demands. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 1(2), 243-256.
  159. Wilson, J. F. (2008). Primary care delivery changes as nonphysician clinicians gain independence. Annals of Internal Medicine, 149(8), 597-600.
  160. Zarkin, G. (1985). Occupational choice: An application to the market for public school teachers. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 100, 409-446.