Strategic Complements or Substitutes? The Case of Adopting Health Information Technology by US Hospitals

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lin, Jianjing
• 署名单位: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_01081
• 发表日期: 2023-09
• 页码: 1237-1254
• 关键词: systems; determinants; estimators; diffusion; oligopoly; exchange; records; games; care

摘要

This paper explores the adoption choice of electronic medical records by U.S. hospitals, which could exhibit strategic complements or substitutes. I find complementarities in adoption through a reduced-form analysis with instruments for unobserved market characteristics. I further develop a dynamic oligopoly model to allow for strategic timing incentives that are missing in the static model. Adopting a dominant local vendor could increase per period profits from adoption by 9.2% over choosing a marginal vendor. A counterfactual analysis suggests that an incentive program rewarding coordination, not just adoption, is more effective in achieving interoperability, especially before the widespread adoption of the technology.