Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/267321 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 10089
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
Using newly digitized U.S. city-level data on hospitals, we explore how pandemics alter preferences for healthcare. We find that cities with higher levels of mortality during the Great Influenza of 1918-1919 subsequently expanded hospital capacity by more than cities experiencing less influenza mortality: cities in the top half of the mortality distribution increased their count of hospitals by 8-10 percent in the years after the pandemic. This effect persisted to 1960 and was driven by increases in non-governmental hospitals. Growth responded most in richer cities, exacerbating existing inequalities in access to healthcare. We do not find evidence that government-run hospitals or other types of city-level spending related to healthcare responded to pandemic intensity, suggesting that large health shocks do not necessarily lead to increased public provision of health services.
Subjects: 
hospitals
healthcare
influenza
pandemics
local public goods
JEL: 
I11
I14
J10
N32
Document Type: 
Working Paper
Appears in Collections:

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.