In this paper we compare the properties in terms of rent extraction of Hotelling spatial competition and monopoly franchises using Dutch first price auctions, two of the most widely used tools to regulate public service provision. In a framework where the regulator can imperfectly observe costs,...

Health care provision in the public sector is increasingly oriented towards a reduction of vertical integration through fairly heterogeneous methods as concerns the contractual rules and the actors that are allowed to compete. In this paper we model the choice of a benevolent regulator that...

The process of privatisation of health care has followed different patterns and some health care systems have preferred to create a mixed market where public organisations compete alongside private ones. The evidence on their performance is mixed. In this article we argue that public hospitals...

The traditional fiscal federalism theory shows that the devolution of functions for the supply of local public goods may increase welfare. However, most services offered at local level are impure local public goods with spillovers. These goods have specific characteristics that may prevent...

We study the welfare properties of direct restrictions based on cost-effectiveness against indirect methods represented by waiting lists in a public health care system. Health care is supplied for free, but with some restrictions by the public health sector. Patients can choose to address their...

Health care usually represents a so called merit good, i.e. a good whose consumption should be promoted and given that in most cases it might be essential to restore health or to stop its decay, most countries have implemented a public health care system where care is supplied to anybody needing...