NOVA SBE Health Economics & Management Seminar Series – 27th June 2025
In this month’s edition of the NOVA SBE Health Economics & Management Seminar Series, we will have David Slusky, Professor of Economics at the University of Kansas.
Professor Slusky will present his research on occupational risks among physician mothers, exploring how the demands of the medical profession may affect maternal and neonatal health outcomes.
📅 Date: 27th June 2025
⏰ Time: 10:00 am – 11:00 am (Lisbon Time)
📍 Location: Nova SBE | Room B002
Title: Occupational Hazard? An Analysis of Birth Outcomes Among Physician Mothers
Authors: Daniel Sacks, David Slusky, and Luke Vanderbeke
ABSTRACT:
The long, physically demanding hours that physicians, particularly surgeons, work during their training could impact physician mothers’ birth outcomes.
Using Texas birth data from 2007-2014, we compared birth outcomes between physicians and lawyers and between surgeons and non-surgeon physicians. We then examine whether the 2011 duty hour reform, which lowered trainee work hours, impacted those birth outcomes. We find that physicians have an increased incidence of having low birth weight and small for gestational age infants, with the results driven by surgeons. In addition, we find that the duty hour reform was associated with reduction in the incidence of small for gestational age infants for younger physicians.
SHORT BIOGRAPHY: David Slusky
David Slusky is a Professor of Economics at the University of Kansas, where he also holds appointments in the Department of Population Health and the Institute for Policy & Social Research. He is Chair of the Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences & Disorders and Executive Director of the American Society of Health Economists. Slusky is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and a Research Fellow at the IZA – Institute for Labor Economics in Bonn. His research focuses on health economics, labor economics, and public policy.
