title: The Welfare Effects of Medical Malpractice Liability.
abstract: We use variation in the generosity of local juries to identify the causal impact of medical malpractice liability on social welfare. Growth in malpractice payments contributed at most 5 percentage points to the 33% total real growth in medical expenditures from 1990-2003. On the other hand, malpractice leads to modest mortality reductions; the value of these more than likely exceeds the costs of malpractice liability. Therefore, reducing malpractice liability is unlikely to have a major impact on health care spending, and unlikely to be cost-effective over conventionally accepted values of a statistical life.
authors.affiliation: University of Southern California and NBER.
authors.forename: Darius N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Lakdawalla
authors.forename: Seth A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Seabury