long panel of data on hospital mergers in the English NHS, where we find that the effects of a merger on waiting times …We analyse – theoretically and empirically – the effect of hospital mergers on waiting times in healthcare markets … waiting times as a result of the merger is larger if the hospitals are more profit-oriented. This result is arguably confirmed …

, hospital services, and physician services. We will discuss the potential implications of the restructuring of the health care …

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 that merger will improve outcomes. We examine whether this promise … involved in a merger, but that politics means that selection for a merger may be random with respect to future performance. We …