Government Regulation and the Quality of Healthcare
研究一项强制最低护士配备水平的法规对养老院医疗服务质量的影响，发现尽管护士工时增加，但患者结局和整体质量未受影响。
Abstract This paper investigates the effect of a regulation mandating a minimum nurse-staffing level on the quality of healthcare in nursing homes. To comply with the regulation, firms increase employment of nurses in proportion to the gap between their initial staffing level and the legislated minimum threshold. If higher nurse staffing causes better quality, then the changes in quality outcomes should mirror these changes. Despite inducing increases in nurse aide hours of 10 percent on average and up to 30 percent for some firms, I find no impact of the regulation on patient outcomes or overall facility quality.