A purchaser/provider split together with output- based reimbursement were recently introduced by several Swedish county councils. These changes have been motivated by arguments of efficiency and consumer choice. This paper tests the null hypothesis that hospital services are provided as...

A separation of provider and purchaser roles - together with performance-based reimbursement - were recently introduced in several county councils, which are the local governments that provide and fund almost all health care in Sweden. These changes have been motivated by efficiency and consumer...

This paper has two purposes. The first purpose is methodological and aims to extend previous work on efficiency analysis by implementing a multiple-output stochastic ray frontier production function model. This model generalizes the single-output stochastic frontier model to multiple-input,...

This paper presents a number of approaches to estimate returns to scale properties of general multiple-input muliple-output technologies. Both qualitative scale efficiency-properties and quantitative scale elasticity-properties are covered. The estimation approaches considered are based on data...

This paper presents a network model incorporating customer satisfaction into efficiency and productivity measures. The network consists of a production node and a consumption node and offers flexibility in modelling the production and consumption process. Allocation of input resources to...

The purpose of this paper is to use the bootstrap resampling technique to calculate confidence intervals for efficiency measures and Malmquist productivity indices. The efficiency and productivity measures are obtained from non-parametric linear programming models using primal production data....

This study addresses the issue of efficiency in the treatment and rehabilitation of hip fracture patients in Sweden. The treatment and rehabilitation of hip fracture patients is defined in terms of a hip fracture treatment process where resources in orthopaedics and after care are used for...

This paper presents and applies different approaches to estimate returns to scale in multiple-input muliple-output technologies. Scale efficiency gives quantitative information of scale characteristics. A primal based approach to estimate the scale elasticity is proposed as an alternative to the...

How to obtain confidence intervals for cost-effectiveness ratios is complicated by the statistical problems to obtain a confidence interval for a ratio of random variables. Different approaches have been suggested in the literature, but no consensus has been reached. In this note we propose an...

A relatively new approach to measure health status is to use non-parametric frontier methods, based on index and production theory. The purpose of this study is to construct and investigate some properties of a non-parametric health status index. The index is based on a non-radial efficiency...