Applied Micro Economics Seminar : Learning-by-Doing in a High-Skill Profession when Stakes are High: Evidence from Advanced Cancer Surgery

Learning-by-Doing in a High-Skill Profession when Stakes are High: Evidence from Advanced Cancer Surgery by Daniel Avdic , Petter Lundborg and Johan Vikström

Abstract:

Learning-by-doing is believed to an important source of productivity growth but there is limited evidence that production increases improves productivity in a causal sense. We document evidence of learning-by-doing in a high-skill activity where stakes are high; advanced cancer surgery. For this purpose, we introduce a novel instrument that exploits closures and openings of entire cancer clinics at hospitals in Sweden, which have given rise to dramatic and exogenous changes in the volume of cancer surgeries performed at hospitals. Using detailed register data on more than 100,000 episodes of advanced cancer surgery, our results suggest rapid, large, and positive effects of surgery volume on survival. In addition, we provide evidence on the mechanisms through which these improvements occur. We also show that our results are not driven by changes in the patient population or by other changes at the hospital level.

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Natascha Wagner