In the last decades, demographic change coupled with new and expensive medical innovations have put most health care systems in developed countries under financial pressure. Therefore, ensuring efficient service provision is essential for a sustainable health care system. This paper investigates...

This work follows the series of studies conducted in Ipea, in order to compare the efficiency of the Brazilian health system to health systems of other countries. We evaluate the efficiency of expenditure in health care provision by comparing various output measures (life expectancy; infant...

This work follows the series of studies conducted in Ipea, in order to compare the efficiency of the Brazilian health system to health systems of other countries. We evaluate the efficiency of expenditure in health care provision by comparing various output measures (life expectancy; infant...

Due to regional competition and patient migration, the efficiency of healthcare provision at the regional level is subject to spatial dependence. We address this issue by applying a spatial autoregressive model to longitudinal data from Germany at the district (`Kreis') level. The empirical...

The inefficiency of health care provision presents a major health policy concern in Germany. In order to address the issue of efficiency comprehensively - i.e. at the level of the entire system of health care provision rather than individual service providers - empirical analyses are often based...

The inefficiency of health care provision presents a major health policy concern in Germany. In order to address the issue of efficiency comprehensively – i.e. at the level of the entire system of health care provision rather than individual service providers – empirical analyses are often...

The nature of the relationship between health and income is still not clearly defined. It is believed that personal income affects health but this may not be the end of the story. Income may also play its part through issues of relativity and deprivation. It may even be possible that these...

We estimate the marginal cost of life using age- and gender-specific health care expenditures and mortality rates of the 26 Swiss cantons for the period 1997 to 2006. We show triple the marginal cost of saving a life for women as compared to men, reflecting a lower marginal elasticity of medical...