Replication data for: Capacity and Utilization in Health Care: The Effect of Empty Beds on Neonatal Intensive Care Admission

Because geographic variation in medical care utilization is jointly determined by both supply and demand, it is difficult to empirically estimate whether capacity itself has a causal impact on utilization in health care. In this paper, I exploit short-term variation in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) capacity that is unlikely to be correlated with unobserved demand determinants. I find that available NICU beds have little to no effect on NICU utilization for the sickest infants, but do increase utilization for those in the range of birth weights where admission decisions are likely to be more discretionary. (JEL I11, I12, I18, J13)

由于医疗服务使用率的地域差异由供给与需求共同决定，因此从实证层面难以估算医疗服务供给能力本身是否会对使用率产生因果影响。本文利用了新生儿重症监护室（Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, NICU）供给能力的短期波动——这类波动与未观测到的需求决定因素基本不存在相关性。研究发现，可供使用的NICU床位对病情最危重的婴儿的NICU使用率几乎无影响，但对于出生体重处于入院决策更具裁量空间区间的婴儿，确实会提升其NICU使用率。(JEL I11, I12, I18, J13)