Birds of a feather flock together: A study of doctor-patient matching

In this paper we study individuals' choice of general practitioners (GPs) utilizing revealed preferences data from the introduction of a regular general practitioner scheme in Norway. Having information on relevant travel distances, we compute decision makers' travel costs associated with different modes of travel. Choice probabilities are estimated by means of nested logit regression on a representative sample of Oslo inhabitants. The results support the general hypothesis that patients prefer doctors who resemble themselves on observable characteristics. The hypothesis that GP gender has a stronger influence on females' GP choice than what is the case for males, is rejected.