TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Albertini, Mattia
AU  - Bakx, Pieter
AU  - Mazzonna, Fabrizio
        TI  - Health and Labor Market Consequences of Low-Value Care: The Role of Practice Style
        PY  - 2025/Mar/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 17771
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp17771
        AB  - We investigate the health and labor market consequences of primary care variation in benzodiazepine prescriptions, a common type of low-value care. Linking Dutch general practitioners’ records to administrative data, we construct an exogenous measure of prescribing behavior that exploits institutional constraints limiting patient choice. Using the loss of a close relative as a common mental health shock and a dynamic difference-in-differences approach, we find that patients treated by high-prescribing GPs are more likely to receive out-of-guidelines benzodiazepine prescriptions, become long-term users, and are less likely to access specialized mental health care. These patients also experience worse labor market outcomes, including increased short-term reliance on unemployment benefits and substantial long-term declines in earnings, primarily driven by reduced wages.
        KW  - labor market
KW  - mental health
KW  - prescribing style
KW  - primary care
KW  - benzodiazepine
KW  - bereavement
        ER  -