Data and Code for: Hurricane Maria and La Crisis Boricua on Healthcare Supply in Puerto Rico

Due to the financial crisis facing Puerto Rico, many medical professionals on the island have left. Former Governor Rossello passed Act 14 in April of 2017 hoping to stave off the exodus of physicians. Act 14 reduces the income tax charge on medical services from 30 % to 4 % for 15 years. During the same year Puerto Rico experience a devastating category 4 hurricane, which left the island without power or water for several months. We will use a difference in difference estimation to estimate the effects of this change in the marginal tax rate to both keep physicians on the island as well as attract new physicians to the island from the mainland US. We use data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, the May Occupational Employment Statistics counts, and the AAMC Report on Residents. We find the number of healthcare providers decreased by 6.5 percent. The number of family physicians and pediatricians fell by 17.5 % and 62 % respectively. However, the number of registered nurses increased by 2.7 %. Although the levels of healthcare providers decreases, the rate of healthcare provides per capita actually increased during this time period since the population decreases more rapidly than the fall in the level of healthcare providers.