Endogenous Work Hours and Practice Patterns of Canadian Physicians

Using an extensive survey of Canadian physicians, the authors study how physician practice patterns are shaped by demographic characteristics, physician specialty, and government policy. They model the simultaneous determination of group size, primary source of professional income (fee-for-service or salaried position), weekly hours of direct patient care, and total weekly hours of work. Employing a method of maximum simulated likelihood, the coefficients are precisely identified. With all else constant in the model, physicians who work under fee-for-service see patients 5.9 more hours each week than physicians who are primarily salaried, yet fee-for-service physicians work 5.5 hours less per week in total.