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Baxk_et_al_2026_IdEP_WorkingPapers_Physician Prescribing Style
Working paper

Physician prescribing style and the economic cost of hospitalization

  • Bakx, Pieter Erasmus School of Health Policy and Management, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
  • Cavallini, Flavia Istituto di economia politica (IdEP), Facoltà di scienze economiche, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera
  • Heck, Karin Nivel, Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, Utrecht, The Netherlands
  • Fabrizio, Mazzonna ORCID Istituto di economia politica (IdEP), Facoltà di scienze economiche, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera
  • 2026
Hospitalization
Labor market recovery
Event study
Prescribing style
English We investigate the role of primary care physicians' prescribing style in the transmission of health shocks to the labor market. Using administrative data from the Netherlands (2009–2020), we exploit the Dutch gatekeeping system and geographic constraints on GP choice to identify the causal effect of prescribing style on post-hospitalization recovery. We characterize GP style by a composite index of prescribing propensity for benzodiazepines, opioids, antidepressants, and antibiotics. Comparing patients in practices above versus below the median of this distribution, we find that while hospitalization leads to persistent earnings losses for all, the "economic penalty'" is 70% steeper for those in high-prescribing practices. Six years post-hospitalization, these patients earn Euro 750 less annually, a gap that widens to Euro 1,500 for those under 45. We identify persistent, potentially addictive benzodiazepine use as the primary mechanism, finding no systematic differences in mortality or rehospitalization rates that might otherwise explain the observed labor market trajectories.
Collections
Language
  • English
Classification
Economics
Series statement
  • IdEP Economic Papers
License
License undefined
Open access status
diamond
Identifiers
  • RICERCO 67548
  • ARK ark:/12658/srd1335063
Persistent URL
https://n2t.net/ark:/12658/srd1335063
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