An extensive literature relating patients' expectations to treatment outcomes has not addressed the determinants of these expectations. We argue that treatment history is part of a reference point that influences the patients' expectations of how effective further treatment might be, thus...

This paper analyzes the welfare effect from government sponsored insurance under two policy regimes for reimbursement levels - the first under which policy makers commit to a specific reimbursement schedule, the second which allows discretion in setting reimbursement schedules. We find that...

Using a national data set, this paper looks at the efficiency of physician practices, focusing on scopes of service by comparing single specialty groups and multispecialty groups. An analysis of efficiency using DEA indicates that there are scope inefficiencies from combining different types of...

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is among the most popular empirical tools for measuring cost and productive efficiency within an industry. Because DEA is a linear programming technique, establishing formal statistical properties for outcomes is difficult. We model the incidence of inefficiency...

We present a counter-example to the conventional property rights theory of the firm, which indicates that not-for-profit firms are incapable of directly competing against strictly profit-maximizing firms without the presence of barriers to entry, outside assistance, changing profit status or...

We present a dynamic property rights model of the firm with two types of non-pecuniary spending: one that is financed through capital markets which impacts future firm wealth, and one that does not. Consumption of the latter good is consistent with what has been found in previous models. Our...