Spatial competition and quality: evidence from the English family doctor market

Spatial competition and quality: evidence from the English family doctor market This paper examines whether family doctor firms in England respond to local competition by increasing their quality. It measures quality in terms of clinical performance and patient-reported satisfaction to capture its multi-dimensional nature. It finds that increases in local competition are associated with increases in clinical quality and patient satisfaction, particularly for firms with lower quality. However, the magnitude of the effect is small. Centre for Health Economics