The Power of Daughters: How Physicians' Family Influences Female Patients' Health (with Ida Lykke Kristiansen, and Tianyi Wang)

Can physicians’ personal lives shape their clinical practice and performance? Using Danish administrative data and the quasi-random assignment of child gender, we find that female patients of male primary care physicians with more daughters experience significantly lower breast and gynecologic cancer mortality, driven by earlier detection and greater preventive effort. Exploring mechanisms, we find that these male physicians collaborate more with women and adhere more closely to women’s health guidelines. Complementary survey data further shed light on channels such as trust, empathy, and communication. The results underscore how social experiences influence physician decision-making and high-stakes patient outcomes.