Race and Urban Medicine: Factors Affecting the Distribution of Physicians in Chicago

Abstract

A demand-supply model, consistent uvith earlier status consistency models, for the distribution of private physicians within a city is presented, and the effect of the race of the potential client population is examined. The results indicate a substantial effect of race on physicians' locations net of the other variables in the model, although this effect can be eliminated if aggregate areal income is very high. The data suggest a threshold value in physicians' locational response to income. As the data are cross-sectional, the results must be interpreted with caution; however, the size of the regression coefficients offers little support for proposals that seek to redistribute phycicians by means of financial incentives. P ARK'S observation that spatial relations reflect social relations is as applicable to the relations between social institutions and individuals as to the relations among