Funder: ESRC
Staff: Carol Propper, John Van Reenen (LSE)
This research examines the impact of staffing and wage differentials on the output of NHS hospitals. We have found that both staffing matters (the proportion of qualified staff employed in a hospital raises quality and quantity of output) and that outside wages matter: hospitals operating in markets where outside wages for nurses are higher have lower quality (higher death rates) and lower volume of output. Work this year has focused on the route by which lower wages translate into poorer outputs occur. We have identified the use of agency nurses as a possible source: we are currently subjecting these findings to a battery of robustness checks.
