We employ a large-scale field experiment to investigate the impact of patients’ socioeconomic status on access to care. We request an appointment at more than 1,200 physicians in Austria, varying the educational level of the patient. Our results show that overall patients with a university degree receive an appointment significantly more often than patients without a degree. Differentiating between practice assistants and physicians as responders, we find that physicians provide significantly shorter response times and marginally significant shorter waiting times for appointments for patients with than without a university degree. Our results thus provide unambiguous evidence that discrimination by health providers contributes to the gradient in access to care. Furthermore, we argue that our results are consistent with implicit bias for practice assistants and statistical discrimination based on financial incentives for physicians.

中文翻译：

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卫生保健中的歧视：关于患者社会经济状况对获得护理的影响的现场实验

我们采用了大规模的现场实验来调查患者的社会经济状况对获得护理的影响。我们要求奥地利的1,200多名医生预约，以改变患者的教育水平。我们的结果表明，具有大学学位的总体患者接受任命的频率明显高于没有学位的患者。通过区分执业助理和医师作为响应者，我们发现，与没有大学学位的患者相比，医师为患者预约的响应时间明显缩短，等待时间明显缩短。因此，我们的结果提供了明确的证据，表明卫生提供者的歧视助长了获得医疗服务的梯度。此外，