Working Paper: NBER ID: w18299
Authors: Nicola Lacetera; Mario Macis; Sarah S. Stith
Abstract: In an attempt to alleviate the shortfall in organs and bone marrow available for transplants, many U.S. states passed legislation providing leave to organ and bone marrow donors and/or tax benefits for live and deceased organ and bone marrow donations and to employers of donors. We exploit cross-state variation in the timing and passage of such legislation to analyze its impact on organ donations by living and deceased persons, on measures of the quality of the organs transplanted, and on the number of bone marrow donations. We find that these provisions did not have a significant impact on the quantity of organs donated. The leave legislation, however, did have a positive impact on bone marrow donations. We also find some evidence of a positive impact on the quality of organ transplants, measured by post-transplant survival rates. Our results suggest that these types of legislation work for moderately invasive procedures such as bone marrow donation, but may be too low for organ donation, which is riskier and more burdensome to the donor.
Keywords: organ donation; bone marrow donation; legislation; tax incentives; leave legislation
JEL Codes: D64; H41; I12; J18; K32
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Leave and tax benefits legislation (H26) | Overall quantity of organs donated (D64) |
| Leave legislation (J38) | Bone marrow donations (D64) |
| Leave legislation (J38) | Quality of organ transplants (post-transplant survival rates) (L15) |
| Overall quantity of organs donated (D64) | Quality of organs donated (post-transplant survival rates) (I14) |