Identification of Physician-Induced Demand

Whether market failure exists in the health care sector, because physicians induce demand in their own self-interest, has not been clearly addressed because of identification problems. A model is developed which includes the patient's financial burden as a limiting factor on demand inducement. New data from a national survey are used to test the demand inducement hypothesis and identify physician-initiated expenditures. When individual health insurance and other factors are held constant, additional corroboration of the physician-induced demand hypothesis is found, but the magnitude of the effect is very small and is statistically significant only for more discretionary expenditures.