Because geographic variation in medical care utilization is jointly determined by both supply and demand, it is difficult to empirically estimate whether capacity itself has a causal impact on utilization in health care. In this paper, I exploit short-term variation in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) capacity that is unlikely to be correlated with unobserved demand determinants. I find that available NICU beds have little to no effect on NICU utilization for the sickest infants, but do increase utilization for those in the range of birth weights where admission decisions are likely to be more discretionary.

中文翻译：

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医疗保健的能力和利用率：空床位对新生儿重症监护入院的影响


由于医疗保健利用的地理差异是由供给和需求共同决定的，因此很难凭经验估计容量本身是否对医疗保健利用有因果影响。在本文中，我利用了新生儿重症监护病房 (NICU) 容量的短期变化，这种变化不太可能与未观察到的需求决定因素相关。我发现可用的 NICU 床位对病情最严重的婴儿的 NICU 利用率几乎没有影响，但确实增加了那些出生体重范围内的婴儿的利用率，这些婴儿的入院决定可能更加自由裁量。