We examine how physician decisions are impacted by difficult cases—encounters with newly diagnosed cancer patients. Using detailed administrative data, we compare primary care physicians’ decisions in visits that occurred before and after difficult cases and matched comparison cases by the...

In this paper, I assess the extent to which the gender gap in physician earnings may be driven by physicians' preference for working with specialists of the same gender. By analyzing administrative data on 100 million Medicare patient referrals, I provide robust evidence that doctors refer more...