Using panel data to estimate the determinants of medical malpractice insurance premiums

The purpose of the present study is to incorporate state-level heterogeneity into an examination of the effects of tort reforms and other factors on medical malpractice insurance premiums; a random effects model is used to account for this heterogeneity. The results of the present study show that individual, state-level effects are important determinants of medical malpractice insurance premiums and that tort reforms had no effects on malpractice insurance premium levels. The results of previous studies that used ordinary least squares had indicated that some tort reforms were significant.