Table 2.
Effect of Medical Malpractice Liability Exposure on Cesarean and Vaginal Births after Cesarean (VBACs)
| Specification | Primary Cesarean | VBAC | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| Panel A: Effect of Malpractice Liability Exposure | ||||||
| First report | −0.0057 | −0.0145** | ||||
| (0.0041) | (0.0062) | |||||
| First severe report | −0.0055 | −0.0124* | ||||
| (0.0048) | (0.0069) | |||||
| First lawsuit | −0.0042 | −0.0189*** | ||||
| (0.0044) | (0.0069) | |||||
| Panel B: Effect of OB‐Related Malpractice Liability Exposure | ||||||
| First report | −0.0028 | −0.0159** | ||||
| (0.0050) | (0.0071) | |||||
| First severe report | −0.0002 | −0.0117 | ||||
| (0.0057) | (0.0077) | |||||
| First lawsuit | −0.0007 | −0.0224*** | ||||
| (0.0054) | (0.0080) | |||||
| Panel C: Effect of Labor and Delivery‐Related Malpractice Liability Exposure | ||||||
| First report | −0.0032 | −0.0102 | ||||
| (0.0061) | (0.0084) | |||||
| First severe report | −0.0005 | −0.0087 | ||||
| (0.0068) | (0.0093) | |||||
| First lawsuit | −0.0031 | −0.0148 | ||||
| (0.0063) | (0.0093) | |||||
| N (patient obs.) | 2,316,504 | 403,378 | ||||
| No. doctors | 2,338 | 2,277 | ||||
| Mean outcome | 0.228 | 0.135 | ||||
Notes: Sample is all physicians delivering babies between 1994 and 2010, excluding those who experienced a malpractice claim prior to 1994, the first year of our linked hospital discharge data. Primary Cesarean is conditional on no prior Cesarean, while VBAC is conditional on a prior Cesarean. These regressions control for the following covariates: premature birth, multiple birth, breech birth, African American, young mom (<20), old mom (>35), Medicaid, number of years doctor has been practicing, doctor, and quarter‐year fixed effects. Standard errors are clustered at the doctor level. Observations are included if the infant was delivered by a physician who delivered at least five babies per quarter.
*p < .10, **p < .05, ***p < .01.