Nuremberg Research Seminar in Economics on 18 December 2024, LG 0.423
You are invited to join the weekly Nuremberg Research Seminar in Economics on 18 December 2024, from 13.15 to 14.45 pm. The seminar will be held in room LG 0.423. Johanna Kokot (University of Hamburg) will be talking about “Reciprocity in medical treatment decisions – A theoretical model and a laboratory experiment”.
More information can be found here:
Reciprocity plays a crucial role in economic interactions, but its influence on the physician-patient relationship has been less explored. This study investigates whether patients’ decisions to purchase out-of-pocket healthcare services, such as screening tests, influence physicians’ treatment efforts for an unrelated disease covered by health insurance. We developed a theoretical model and conducted a laboratory experiment with approximately 300 participants, with medical students acting as physicians. Our results indicate that physicians provide less treatment effort when patients decline to purchase a screening test. We find stronger evidence for negative reciprocity compared to positive reciprocity. Moreover, patients seem to anticipate physician reciprocity: They purchase screenings more often when the physician can observe their choice before deciding on an effort level. These findings have important implications for healthcare policy and the design of incentive structures within medical practice.