Tuition and Career Incentives: Evidence from Doctor Medical Billing - Emiel Jerphanion

Event Date: 8 April 2026

Speaker: Emiel Jerphanion, University of Manchester

Venue: Strathclyde Business School, Cathedral Wing, CW404a

Time: 2pm

Abstract:

Between 2001 and 2022, US medical school real tuition and fees revenue increased by 81%, accompanied by a sharp rise in medical student debt. This paper examines the causal impact of higher medical school tuition on physicians' post-graduation economic behavior, focusing on their Medicaid claims. We compile a novel dataset covering all students from the 140 largest US medical schools and exploit how relatively large changes to the tuition sticker price have a differential effect on students who enrolled at the same school in different cohorts. We find that an increase in tuition leads to an increase in annual Medicaid claims per physician after graduation. This increase is partly driven by higher billing intensity – doctors using their discretion to charge more for a given procedure code. These results suggest that increasing educational costs affect physician incentives and have unintended consequences for healthcare care delivery and public spending.

Published: 31 March 2026