Previous empirical studies of the incentive effects of medical malpractice liability have largely ignored the incentives of providers to restructure to protect assets. This study uses a large panel database to provide evidence on asset-shielding responses to the enactment of pro-plaintiff tort...

In this paper, we study the effects of tax-exempt debt on the supply of charity care of non-profit hospitals. We hypothesize that hospitals using tax-exempt rather than taxable debt are forced to provide higher levels of charity care as a condition for gaining access to the tax-exempt market....

Parties needing to monitor the financial performance of not-for-profit (NFP) organizations have traditionally relied upon financial ratios of accounting data. This practice can lead to misleading inferences about profitability in relation to organizational needs, since accounting rates of return...

In this paper we discuss the potential role capital markets will play in health care restructuring. According to theory, agency costs, asymmetric information and strategic interactions cause the cost of capital for nonprofit entities to slope upward. Freestanding nonprofits are particularly...

Models of horizontal integration typically describe a trade-off between multiunit efficiencies and managerial agency costs. In extreme cases where managers cannot be incented contractually, private ownership is thought to be the primary organizational substitute. In this paper we explore...