Beyond its explanatory ambitions as positive science, economics has always had its normativeor applied branch that aims at providing advice about how man’s socio-economic conditionmight be improved. Under the name welfare economics the discipline’s normative branch hasbeen formalized, in the...

In games of social learning individuals tend to give too much weight to their own private information relative to the information that is conveyed by the choices of others. In this paper we investigate differences between individuals and small groups as decision makers in information cascade...

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the necessity and the methodologies of assessing outcomes as part of the evaluation of health services and health programmes.

Der deutsche Krankenhaussektor hat in den letzten Jahren eine sehr dynamische Entwicklung genommen, die mit einer deutlichen Wettbewerbsverschärfung einhergegangen ist. Um die eigene Existenz zu sichern, ist es für Krankenhäuser erforderlich geworden, auf moderne Controllinginstrumente...

At present Germany experiences a shake-up of the hospital industry, following the introduction of a DRG-based hospital budgeting system. Hospital owners re-evaluate their assets and adapt their strategies to the new regulatory environment. Benchmarking studies play a vital role in assessing own...