TY  - JOUR
AU  - Bolin,Kristian
AU  - Lindgren,Anna
AU  - Lindgren,Bjorn
AU  - Lundborg,Petter
TI  - Utilisation of Physician Services in the 50+ Population. The Relative Importance of Individual versus Institutional Factors in 10 European Countries
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 14096
PY  - 2008
Y2  - June 2008
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14096
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14096.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Kristian Bolin
Department of Economics
Lund University
P.O.Box 7082
SE-220 07 Lund
SWEDEN
E-Mail: Kristian.Bolin@luche.lu.se

Anna Lindgren
Centre for Mathematical Sciences
P.O.Box 118
SE- 221 00 Lund
SWEDEN
E-Mail: Anna.Lindgren@matstat.lu.se

Bjorn Lindgren
Department of Economics
University of Gothenburg
P.O.Box 640
SE-40530  Gothenburg
SWEDEN
E-Mail: Bjorn.Lindgren@economics.gu.se

petter lundborg
Department of Economics
Free University Amsterdam
De Boelelaan 1105
NL-1081 HV Amsterdam
THE NETHERLANDS
E-Mail: plundborg@feweb.vu.nl
AB  - We analysed the relative importance of individual versus institutional factors in explaining variations in the utilisation of physician services among the 50+ in ten European countries. The importance of the latter was investigated, distinguishing between organisational (explicit) and cultural (implicit) institutional factors, by analysing the influence of supply side factors, such as physician density and physician reimbursement, and demand side factors, such as co-payment and gate-keeping, while controlling for a number of individual characteristics, using cross-national individual-level data from SHARE. Individual differences in health status accounted for about 50 percent of the between-country variation in physician visits, while the organisational and cultural factors considered each account for about 15 percent of the variation. The organisational variables showed the expected signs, with higher physician density being associated with more visits and higher co-payment, gate-keeping, and salary reimbursement being associated with less visits. When analysing specialist visits separately, however, organisational and cultural factors played a greater role, each accounting for about 30 percent of the between-country variation, whereas individual health differences only accounted for 1 percent of the variation.
ER  -