This study provides both a behavioral model and empirical evidence on the risky search for a health service across jurisdictions that differ in their regulatory policies. The health service in question is a particularly sensitive one, an abortion, and the jurisdictions are the 26 cantons of Switzerland. Using Swiss health insurance data, theoretical predictions are confirmed to a considerable degree: (1) Women who derive a particularly high benefit from an abortion (and concealing it) are less discouraged by strict local enforcement than others; (2) A substantial share of abortions may be concealed by contrived medical coding, and (3) Conservative cantons with a preference for stringent implementation of federal abortion regulation export the problem to more liberal ones, resulting in preference-based migration. The analysis implies a difficult trade-off for policy: To curtail abortion tourism, the cantons would have to be mandated to implement the pertinent federal regulation in a uniform way; this would, however, neglect important regional differences in preferences.

中文翻译：

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法规约束下的健康风险决定：瑞士堕胎旅游

这项研究提供了行为模型和经验证据，证明了在监管政策不同的辖区之间进行卫生服务的风险性搜索。有问题的卫生服务是一种特别敏感的服务，一种堕胎，其管辖范围是瑞士的26个州。使用瑞士的健康保险数据，可以在很大程度上确认理论预测：（1）严格的当地执法不鼓励从堕胎中获得特别高收益的妇女（并掩盖堕胎）。（2）人为设计的医学法规可能掩盖了很大一部分堕胎，（3）倾向于严格执行联邦堕胎法规的保守州将这一问题出口到更为自由的国家，从而导致了基于偏好的移民。分析表明，在政策上难以取舍：为了减少堕胎旅游，必须授权各州以统一的方式实施相关的联邦法规；但是，这将忽略重要的地区偏好差异。