Abstract
We exploit lottery-determined admission to dental school to estimate the payoffs to the study of dentistry in the Netherlands. Using data from up to 22 years after the lottery, we find that in most years after graduation dentists earn around 50,000 Euros more than they would earn in their next-best profession. The payoff is larger for men than for women but does not vary with high school GPA. The large payoffs cannot be attributed to longer working hours, larger investments while studying (opportunity costs and direct costs), or unpleasant aspects of working as a dentist. A plausible explanation is that dentists earn a monopoly rent. Results from regressions of dentists’ earnings on dentists density are consistent with this, as are the facts that the supply of dentists in the Netherlands is low and that the payoff does not vary with high school GPA.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 145-158 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Journal of Health Economics |
| Volume | 63 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2019 |
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Keywords
- Admission lotteries
- Dentists
- Medical labor markets
- Monopoly rents
- Occupational licensing
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Do Dutch dentists extract monopoly rents? / Ketel, Nadine; Leuven, Edwin; Oosterbeek, Hessel; van der Klaauw, Bas.
In: Journal of Health Economics, Vol. 63, 01.01.2019, p. 145-158.Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
TY - JOUR
T1 - Do Dutch dentists extract monopoly rents?
AU - Ketel, Nadine
AU - Leuven, Edwin
AU - Oosterbeek, Hessel
AU - van der Klaauw, Bas
PY - 2019/1/1
Y1 - 2019/1/1
N2 - We exploit lottery-determined admission to dental school to estimate the payoffs to the study of dentistry in the Netherlands. Using data from up to 22 years after the lottery, we find that in most years after graduation dentists earn around 50,000 Euros more than they would earn in their next-best profession. The payoff is larger for men than for women but does not vary with high school GPA. The large payoffs cannot be attributed to longer working hours, larger investments while studying (opportunity costs and direct costs), or unpleasant aspects of working as a dentist. A plausible explanation is that dentists earn a monopoly rent. Results from regressions of dentists’ earnings on dentists density are consistent with this, as are the facts that the supply of dentists in the Netherlands is low and that the payoff does not vary with high school GPA.
AB - We exploit lottery-determined admission to dental school to estimate the payoffs to the study of dentistry in the Netherlands. Using data from up to 22 years after the lottery, we find that in most years after graduation dentists earn around 50,000 Euros more than they would earn in their next-best profession. The payoff is larger for men than for women but does not vary with high school GPA. The large payoffs cannot be attributed to longer working hours, larger investments while studying (opportunity costs and direct costs), or unpleasant aspects of working as a dentist. A plausible explanation is that dentists earn a monopoly rent. Results from regressions of dentists’ earnings on dentists density are consistent with this, as are the facts that the supply of dentists in the Netherlands is low and that the payoff does not vary with high school GPA.
KW - Admission lotteries
KW - Dentists
KW - Medical labor markets
KW - Monopoly rents
KW - Occupational licensing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85059943480&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85059943480&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2018.11.001
DO - 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2018.11.001
M3 - Article
VL - 63
SP - 145
EP - 158
JO - Journal of Health Economics
JF - Journal of Health Economics
SN - 0167-6296
ER -