The labour supply behaviour of self-employed solo practice physicians

This paper investigates the empirical labour supply behaviour of self-employed solo practice physicians. The specification of the empirical labour supply equation is based on a model of constrained utility-maximizing behaviour that recognizes the physician makes work/leisure choices based on an endogenous shadow wage and faces a non-linear budget constraint. The findings suggest that the typical self-employed solo practice male physician operates on the upward-sloping portion of the labour supply curve and is relatively unresponsive to changes in marginal hourly medical practice earnings and non-practice income.