This paper reports the results of an investigation into the technical efficiency (i.e. the ability to convert inputs into outputs) the NHS hospital sector. The method employed is the ‘stochastic frontier production function’. In contrast to the approach adopted by Feldstein in his...

The development of performance indicators for the NHS has resulted in renewed interest in regression-based measures of hospital performance. This paper considers three regression-based measures of hospital efficiency, including the index of hospital ‘costliness’ proposed by Martin Feldstein...

There has been a vigorous dispute about quality adjusted life years (QALYs) and it has been argued that they are an inappropriate measure of patient utility and that a more efficient approach is to measure outcomes in terms of health year equivalents (HYEs). This paper explores the theoretical...

Four distributional principles for the allocation of health care resources are discussed: equal expenditures per capita, proportionality to need, proportionality to endowment health status, and proportionality to capacity to benefit. They are compared with another process, concept of equity,...

This paper provides a survey of British applied econometric work in the field of health economics. The literature is divided into five main areas: the supply of health care; the demand for health care; non-medical influences on health; market equilibrium and non-price rationing; and planning,...