This paper shows how scale efficiency can be measured from an arbitrary parametric hyperbolic distance function with multiple outputs and multiple inputs. It extends the methods introduced by Ray (J Product Anal 11:183–194, <CitationRef CitationID="CR8">1998</CitationRef>), and Balk (J Product Anal 15:159–183, <CitationRef CitationID="CR1">2001</CitationRef>) and Ray (<CitationRef CitationID="CR9">2003</CitationRef>)...</citationref></citationref></citationref>

Using household panel data from Vietnam, this paper compares out-of-pocket health expenditures on outpatient care at a health facility between insured and uninsured patients as well as across various providers. In the random effects model, the estimated coefficient of the insurance status...