title: The Effect of Certificate of Need Laws on All-Cause Mortality.
abstract: To test how Certificate of Need laws affect all-cause mortality in the United States.
  
  
  
  The data of 1992-2011 all-cause mortality are from the Center for Disease Control's Compressed Mortality File; control variables are from the Current Population Survey, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, and Area Health Resources File; and data on Certificate of Need laws are from Stratmann and Russ ().
  
  
  
  Using fixed- and random-effects regressions, I test how the scope of state Certificate of Need laws affects all-cause mortality within US counties.
  
  
  
  Certificate of Need laws have no statistically significant effect on all-cause mortality. Point estimates indicate that if they have any effect, they are more likely to increase mortality than decrease it.
  
  
  
  Proponents of Certificate of Need laws have claimed that they reduce mortality by concentrating more care into fewer, larger facilities that engage in learning-by-doing. However, I find no evidence that these laws reduce all-cause mortality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics and Finance, Heider College of Business of Creighton University, Omaha, NE, USA.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bailey
mesh_terms: D040343:Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System; D002567:Certificate of Need / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006749:Hospital Design and Construction / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D044469:Racial Groups; D012044:Regression Analysis; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States
keywords: Certificate of Need; all-cause mortality; health planning; health quality