The impact of hospital waiting lists on labour market outcomes: quasi-experimental evidence from musculoskeletal treatment in England

We analyse the effect of waiting time for elective musculoskeletal treatment on labour market outcomes in England using hospital records for working-age adults who received treatment between April 2015 and March 2023 to Census, tax and benefit records. To address clinical prioritisation and unobserved severity, we leveraged provider-level waiting time as an instrument for individual waiting time and estimated two-stage least squares models adjusted for baseline labour market outcomes, demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, and provider, referral-time and procedure fixed effects. We fin

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