The principal aim of this paper is to estimate a stochastic frontier cost function and an inefficiency effects model in the analysis of the primary health-care services purchased by the public authority and supplied by 180 providers in 1996 in Catalonia. The evidence from our sample does not...

The purpose of this paper is to obtain empirical measures of performance in the management of critical patients treated in intensive care units (ICUs) and to evaluate the factors associated with performance, in a two stage approach. In the first stage, this paper uses an extended version of Data...

This paper aims to estimate a translog stochastic frontier production function with panel data of 147 mixed Catalan farms in a five-year period. The mean output efficiency in the period analysed was estimated to be 62.3%. We added management variables to the traditional factors explaining farm...

Background:Background: In many countries with generic reference pricing, generic producers and distributors compete by means of undisclosed discounts offered to pharmacies in order to reduce acquisition costs and to induce them to dispense their generic to patients in preference over others....

Objectives To assess the impact of competition on the consumer price and the average price paid by the National Health System (NHS) under reference pricing in the Spanish generic market.Methods Descriptive analysis of the time trend in consumer prices before and after the application of...

This book provides a complete approach to the economics of financing medicines and policy implications for the efficiency and equity of health systems. In all health systems with majority public financing, pharmaceutical reimbursement is one of the key factors in policies of change and...

This paper provides empirical evidence on the explanatory factors affecting introductory prices of new pharmaceuticals in a heavily regulated and highly subsidized market. We collect a data set consisting of all new chemical entities launched in Spain between 1997 and 2005, and model launch...