TY  - JOUR
AU  - Currie,Janet
AU  - MacLeod,W. Bentley
TI  - First Do No Harm?: Tort Reform and Birth Outcomes
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12478
PY  - 2006
Y2  - August 2006
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12478
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12478.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Janet Currie
Princeton University
316 Wallace Hall
Princeton, NJ 08544
Tel: 609-258-7393
Fax: 609-258-5974
E-Mail: jcurrie@princeton.edu

W. Bentley MacLeod
Department of Economics
Columbia University
420 West 118th Street, MC 3308
New York, NY 10027
Tel: 310-571-5083
Fax: 212/854-4782
E-Mail: bentley.macleod@columbia.edu
AB  - We examine the impact of tort reforms using U.S. birth records for 1989-2001. We make four contributions: First, we develop a model that analyzes the incentives created by specific tort reforms. Second, we assemble new data on tort reform. Third, we examine a range of outcomes. Finally, we allow for differential effects by demographic/risk group. We find that reforms of the "deep pockets rule" reduce complications of labor and C-sections, while caps on noneconomic damages increase them. Our results demonstrate there are important interactions between incentives created by tort law and other incentives facing physicians.
ER  -