Racial Differences in Willingness to Pay for Hospital Access

Leguizamon, Susane and Christafore, David (2014): Racial Differences in Willingness to Pay for Hospital Access.

Abstract

We estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) of individuals to have increased spatial access to hospitals using a spatial hedonic price model. Employing a dataset of over 90,000 detailed housing observations, we find that WTP of individuals to live one mile closer to a hospital is positive if the hospital is a designated public hospital, lower for private hospitals and insignificant for non-profit hospitals. Areas comprised of a relatively large population of black residents value spatial access significantly more and, for higher concentrations, exhibit a positive willingness to pay for all hospital types. This is likely due to increased transportation costs of individuals in minority areas.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Health Care, Housing Markets, Cost-Benefit Analysis
• Subjects: I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I11 - Analysis of Health Care Markets; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I18 - Government Policy ; Regulation ; Public Health; R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R5 - Regional Government Analysis > R53 - Public Facility Location Analysis ; Public Investment and Capital Stock

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