Distributional change in physician manpower, United States, 1963-80

Using data from the American Medical Association's Physician Masterfiles (1963-80) and the GINI index of resource concentration as a global measure of changes in the pattern of locational choice, the expectation of a more uniform distribution of physicians is shown to have been met for all major categories of physicians except General Practitioners. Increases in the supply of Surgical Specialists, Medical Specialists, and Other Specialists were accompanied by increases in the index of dispersion across counties of 23.1 per cent, 17.9 per cent and 21 per cent, respectively. By 1980, Surgical Specialists were the most uniformly distributed of all physician groups. The distributional implications of location theory for physicians are addressed and evidence relevant to evaluating this economic theory of locational choice is presented.