Choice of dialysis treatment and type of medical unit (private vs public): application of a recursive bivariate probit

ESRD patients have to deal with two choices: the first is related to the dialysis modality; the second concerns the type of dialysis unit (public vs private) where to undertake the treatment. Such a choice is related to unobservable factors, among which there might be patients' clinical factors as well as factors related to the characteristics of each unit. We employ a recursive bivariate probit estimation on a sample of ESRD Sicilian patients in order to evaluate the impact of these factors. Results can have important implications for Sicily in order to organize dialysis services: here, in fact, the number of private centres is higher than in other Italian Regions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.