Designing and implementing a randomized audit study, we present novel evidence on the effects of physician gender, patient gender, as well as physician-patient gender match on the quality of health care in a primary care setting in urban China. While we find little support for any impact of physician gender, our results show salient differences in the quality of health care by patient gender, which is driven by the physician-patient gender match. In contrast to the widely-held belief that gender-concordance may promote care quality, we find female physicians treating male patients with a higher probability of correct diagnosis and drug prescription, but with no significant increase in medical costs. We interpret the results as defensive behaviors when female physicians seeing male patients, improved quality of care owing to their shifted efforts from the treatment stage to the consultation stage, and more patient-centered communications.
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