Description:

Nicole Ozminkowski (Northwestern University): "Labor market consequences of whistleblowing in the health industry: Evidence from a natural field experiment"

Abstract: White-collar crimes, nonviolent offenses committed in commercial situations, cost the United States more than $500 billion (2.5% of GDP) annually. Since white collar crimes are difficult to detect, law enforcement agencies often rely on insiders, called whistleblowers, to report malfeasance. However, these whistleblowers may face retaliation for reporting, either by their current or by prospective employers who are made aware of the applicant’s whistleblowing status. We propose a large scale resume-correspondence study to understand the career consequences of whistleblowing for those who report three types of whistleblowing in the health industry: malpractice, billing fraud, and sexual harassment. We will follow this with analysis to determine characteristics of markets and hospitals that correlate with treatment effects in an effort to gain insight on potential drivers of discrimination against whistleblowers.