Physician response to fee changes: using inheritance as a quasi-natural experiment

We used data on inheritance received by Norwegian primary care physicians and their spouses to study how wealth affects the amount of medical treatment provided by fee-for-service physicians. The effect of wealth on the number of consultations, and the amount of treatment provided during consultations, was small. Our results suggest that the income effect of fee changes on service provision of fee-for-service physicians is moderate, implying that fee regulation is an effective means of controlling spending on primary care physician services.