American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Defying Distance? The Provision of Medical Services in the Digital Age
American Economic Review
(pp. 3464–3509)
Abstract
Digital platforms reduce geographic frictions, enabling better matching between service providers and users. I quantify reallocation gains in Swedish online health care, using nationwide time-conditional random assignment between patients and physicians. Matching high-risk patients with doctors effective at reducing Emergency Room visits lowers such visits by 4.4 percent (SE 1.3); reallocations also reduce Counter-Guideline antibiotics by 3.1 percent (1.4 ). I find limited trade-offs in matching; horizontal differentiation among doctors and varied patient needs allow improvement in multiple outcomes simultaneously. Efficiency-enhancing reallocations also affect equity. The findings highlight the potential for care reorganization aligning provider heterogeneity with patient needs when geographic constraints are lifted.Citation
Dahlstrand, Amanda. 2026. "Defying Distance? The Provision of Medical Services in the Digital Age." American Economic Review 116 (9): 3464–3509. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20240756Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- C78 Bargaining Theory; Matching Theory
- H51 National Government Expenditures and Health
- I11 Analysis of Health Care Markets
- I13 Health Insurance, Public and Private
- I14 Health and Inequality
- I18 Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health