PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Rudy Douven
AU  - Minke Remmerswaal
AU  - Robin Zoutenbier
TI  - Do Altruistic Mental Health Care Providers Have Better Treatment Outcomes?
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.54.2.0716.8070R1
DP  - 2019 Mar 31
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 310--341
VI  - 54
IP  - 2
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/54/2/310.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/54/2/310.full
SO  - J Hum Resour2019 Mar 31; 54
AB  - We study heterogeneity in provider altruism among self-employed mental health care providers in the Netherlands. Using a large administrative data set, we exploit the discontinuities in the compensation scheme to separate altruistically motivated providers from financially motivated providers. We find strong heterogeneity in provider altruism. Moreover, we find that more altruistically motivated providers treat mental health patients for shorter durations and report better treatment outcomes, as measured by the improvement in Global Assessment of Functioning. These results suggest that provider altruism is positively related to treatment outcomes.