ArticleThe American economic review2023
When a Doctor Falls from the Sky: The Impact of Easing Doctor Supply Constraints on Mortality.
Article in The American economic review, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Right-sizing Incentives.Journal of development economics · 2026Article
- The effects of insurance coverage under Shanghai hospital global budget management.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Making Bricks from Straw: Resources and Productivity in Health Care.The American economic review · 2026Article
- What happens to population health when the doctors leave? Evidence from the exit of Cuban doctors in Brazil.Journal of health economics · 2026Article
- Human resource challenges in health systems: evidence from 10 African countries.Health policy and planning · 2024Article
- When a Doctor Falls from the Sky: The Impact of Easing Doctor Supply Constraints on Mortality.The American economic review · 2023Article
- Money and my mind: Maternal cash transfers and mental health.Health economics · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
Abstract
This paper describes the results of a policy experiment conducted in coordination with the Nigerian government. In this experiment, some communities were randomly selected to receive a new doctor. These doctors were posted to the public health center serving the community to work for a year. Prior to their arrival, health care was provided by mid-level health care providers (MLP). To separate the effect of (ostensibly higher) quality from that of quantity, another group of communities was provided with an additional mid-level health care worker. A third group of communities received no additional workers. No other inputs were provided. I find a measurable decrease in mortality in communities assigned a doctor but not in communities assigned an additional MLP, suggesting that quality in the health care sector is a significant constraint.
Identifiers
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.