Latent class versus two‐part models in the demand for physician services across the European Union
利用欧洲共同体家庭面板数据，比较潜在类别模型和两部分模型在12个欧洲国家全科医生和专科医生就诊需求估计中的适用性，发现前者更适合全科医生，后者更适合专科医生。
Using three waves of data from the European Community Household Panel, this paper estimates demand for physician services equations for 12 European countries. We focus on the selection of the most appropriate econometric specification for visits to general practitioners and to specialists among two-part and latent class models. The distinction between the demand of services from these two types of physicians allows us to distinguish cases in which two-part perform better than latent class models, evidence which is different from previous findings in the literature. The results suggest that latent class models are more appropriate than two-part models to estimate general practitioners utilisation while the opposite is found for visits to the specialists.