Centralized public sector wage setting for public sector workers is widespread. We would expect such regulation to have effects on labor supply and on the productivity of public services in areas with strong local labor markets. In this paper we test this, using the British National Health...

The literature on mergers between private hospitals suggests that such mergers often produce little benefit. Despite this, the UK government has pursued an active policy of hospital merger. These mergers are initiated by a regulator, acting on behalf of the public, and justified on the grounds...

This paper addresses a lack of evidence on the impact of performance pay in the public sector by evaluating a pilot scheme of incentives in a major government agency. The incentive scheme was based on teams and covered quantity and quality targets, measured with varying degrees of precision. We...

We examine variation in US hospital quality across ownership, chain membership, and market concentration. We use a new measure of quality derived from the penalties imposed on hospitals under the flagship Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program. We document a robust and sizable negative...

This paper examines the implications of consumer heterogeneity for the choice of competition and monopoly in public services delivery. In a setting with motivated providers who favour one type of service user over another, we show that competition can raise average quality. However, this may be...

We examine variation in US hospital quality across ownership, market concentration and membership of a hospital chain. We use a new measure of quality derived from the penalties imposed on hospitals under the flagship Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program. We document a robust and sizable...