Merchants of Death: The Effect of Credit Supply Shocks on Hospital Outcomes
Cyrus Aghamolla, Pinar Karaca-Mandic, Xuelin Li, Richard T. Thakor
American Economic Review · 2024 · Volume 114 · Issue 11
Abstract
This study examines the link between credit supply and hospital health outcomes. We use bank stress tests as exogenous shocks to credit access for hospitals that have lending relationships with tested banks. We find that affected hospitals shift their operations to increase resource utilization following a negative credit shock but reduce the quality of their care to patients across a variety of measures, including a significant increase in risk-adjusted readmission and mortality rates. The results indicate that access to credit can affect the quality of health care hospitals deliver, pointing to important spillover effects of credit market frictions on health outcomes.
Keywords
Banks, Depository Institutions, Micro Finance Institutions, Mortgages, Financing Policy, Financial Risk and Risk Management, Capital and Ownership Structure, Value of Firms, Goodwill, Analysis of Health Care Markets, Health: Government Policy, Regulation, Public Health
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