Volume 20, Number 2 (Spring) 1985
Booton, LaVonne A., and Julia L. Lane. 1985. "Hospital Market Structure and the Return to Nursing Education." Journal of Human Resources 20(2):184-196.
Wages and employment patterns of over 5000 nurses are examined for a state where extensive corporate ownership of hospitals magnifies the concentrated nature of the hospital setting. While baccalaureate nurses hold more positions of responsibility, regression analysis shows that the inter- action of possessing a baccalaureate degree and hospital employment results in a significantly negative effect on wages. The study suggests that this effect is due to the oligopsonistic hospital structure rather than to lack of recognition by employers of differences between baccalaureate and other nurses.
The authors are, respectively. Assistant Professor of Economics. Western
Illinois University, and Assistant Professor of Economics, University of
Louisville.
The authors would like to thank Timothy Smeeding, University
of Utah, Rex Fuller, University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse, and an anonymous referee
for helpful comments.
© 2003 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
US ISSN 0022-166X