Merchants of Death: The Effect of Credit Supply Shocks on Hospital Outcomes
研究发现，银行压力测试导致的信贷供给减少，使相关医院提高资源利用率，但患者风险调整后的再入院率和死亡率显著上升，表明信贷摩擦对医疗质量有重要溢出效应。
This study examines the link between credit supply and hospital health outcomes. We use bank stress tests as exogenous shocks to credit access for hospitals that have lending relationships with tested banks. We find that affected hospitals shift their operations to increase resource utilization following a negative credit shock but reduce the quality of their care to patients across a variety of measures, including a significant increase in risk-adjusted readmission and mortality rates. The results indicate that access to credit can affect the quality of health care hospitals deliver, pointing to important spillover effects of credit market frictions on health outcomes.