Do responses to news matter? Evidence from interventional cardiology

Abstract

We examine physician responses to a global information shock and how these impact their patients. We exploit international news over the safety of an innovation in healthcare, the drug-eluting stent. We use data on interventional cardiologists’ use of stents to define and measure cardiologists’ responsiveness to the initial positive news and link this to their patients’ outcomes. We find substantial heterogeneity in responsiveness to news. Patients treated by cardiologists who respond slowly to the initial positive news have fewer adverse outcomes. This is not due to patient–physician sorting. Instead, our results suggest that the differences are partially driven by slow responders being better at deciding when (not) to use the new technology, which in turn affects their patient outcomes.