The effects of delayed remuneration on doctor labour supply: evidence from the English NHS
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Propper, Carol
Stoye, George
Warner, Max
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
We examine the labour supply response of doctors in England to a reform to public sector pensions that increased the link between current labour supply and pension value. Exploiting the staggered rollout of the reform across narrowly defined birth cohorts, we find that mid-career doctors increased their labour supply to the public healthcare system by just under 4% four years after exposure. This was driven by increases on the extensive margin of working in the public healthcare system. Our results imply an extensive margin labour supply elasticity with respect to the link between current labour supply and pension value of 0.04. Taking into account current pay we estimate an extensive margin labour supply elasticity with respect to total remuneration of 0.29. This is similar to estimates of doctor labour elasticities with respect to pay in other contexts, and suggests that delayed remuneration can be an effective tool for hospital systems to affect mid-career doctor labour supply.
Date Issued
2026-03-01
Date Acceptance
2026-02-03
Citation
Journal of Health Economics, 2026, 106
ISSN
0167-6296
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Health Economics
Volume
106
Copyright Statement
© 2026 Institute for Fiscal Studies. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ).
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/41671894
PII: S0167-6296(26)00017-2
Subjects
Defined benefit pensions
Labour supply elasticity
Public pension reform
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
Netherlands
Article Number
103119
Date Publish Online
2026-02-04