IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bri/cmpowp/12-296.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Competition, Equity and Quality in Health Care

Author

Listed:
  • Maija Halonen-Akatwijuka
  • Carol Propper

Abstract

In this paper we focus on the implications of consumer heterogeneity for whether competition will improve outcomes in health care markets. We show that competition generally favours the majority group as higher quality for the majority is an effective way to increase the quality signal and attract patients. A regulator who is concerned about equity may protect the minority group by not introducing competition. Alternatively, if the minority group is favoured by the providers under monopoly, competition can improve equity by forcing the providers to increase quality for the majority group.

Suggested Citation

  • Maija Halonen-Akatwijuka & Carol Propper, 2012. "Competition, Equity and Quality in Health Care," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 12/296, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.
    • Handle: RePEc:bri:cmpowp:12/296
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/cmpo/publications/papers/2012/wp296.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ernst Fehr & Klaus M. Schmidt, 1999. "A Theory of Fairness, Competition, and Cooperation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(3), pages 817-868.
    2. Francois, Patrick, 2000. "'Public service motivation' as an argument for government provision," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(3), pages 275-299, November.
    3. Timothy Besley & Maitreesh Ghatak, 2005. "Competition and Incentives with Motivated Agents," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(3), pages 616-636, June.
    4. Oddvar Kaarboe & Luigi Siciliani, 2011. "Multi‐tasking, quality and pay for performance," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(2), pages 225-238, February.
    5. Brekke, Kurt R. & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2008. "Competition and waiting times in hospital markets," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(7), pages 1607-1628, July.
    6. Brekke, Kurt R. & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2010. "Price and quality in spatial competition," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 471-480, November.
    7. Beitia, Arantza, 2003. "Hospital quality choice and market structure in a regulated duopoly," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(6), pages 1011-1036, November.
    8. Brekke, Kurt R. & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2012. "Quality competition with profit constraints," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 642-659.
    9. Delfgaauw, Josse & Dur, Robert, 2007. "Signaling and screening of workers' motivation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 62(4), pages 605-624, April.
    10. Eggleston, Karen, 2005. "Multitasking and mixed systems for provider payment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 211-223, January.
    11. Chalkley, Martin & Malcomson, James M, 1998. "Contracting for Health Services with Unmonitored Quality," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 108(449), pages 1093-1110, July.
    12. Neil Rickman & Alistair McGuire, 1999. "Regulating Providers’ Reimbursement in a Mixed Market for Health Care," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 46(1), pages 53-71, February.
    13. Josse Delfgaauw & Robert Dur, 2008. "Incentives and Workers’ Motivation in the Public Sector," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(525), pages 171-191, January.
    14. Gravelle, Hugh & Sivey, Peter, 2010. "Imperfect information in a quality-competitive hospital market," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 524-535, July.
    15. Halonen-Akatwijuka, Maija & Propper, Carol, 2008. "Competition and decentralisation in government bureaucracies," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 67(3-4), pages 903-916, September.
    16. Ellis, Randall P., 1998. "Creaming, skimping and dumping: provider competition on the intensive and extensive margins1," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 537-555, October.
    17. Le Grand, Julian, 2003. "Motivation, Agency, and Public Policy: Of Knights and Knaves, Pawns and Queens," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199266999, Decembrie.
    18. Gravelle, Hugh, 1999. "Capitation contracts: access and quality," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 315-340, June.
    19. Ellis, Randall P. & McGuire, Thomas G., 1986. "Provider behavior under prospective reimbursement : Cost sharing and supply," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 129-151, June.
    20. Hans Gersbach & Maija Halonen-Akatwijuka, 2005. "Mixing Private and Public Service Providers and Specialization," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 05/131, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lawson, Aidan, 2021. "United Kingdom Asset Resolution Limited (UKAR)," Journal of Financial Crises, Yale Program on Financial Stability (YPFS), vol. 3(2), pages 641-664, April.
    2. Stenbacka Rune & Tombak Mihkel, 2018. "Optimal Reimbursement Policy in Health Care: Competition, Ownership Structure and Quality Provision," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 18(1), pages 1-19, January.
    3. Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2019. "Competition and equity in health care markets," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 1-14.
    4. Rune Stenbacka & Mihkel Tombak, 2014. "Optimal Co-Payment Policy In Health Care: Competition, Ownership Structure And Quality Provision," Working Papers 140004, Canadian Centre for Health Economics.
    5. Rita Santos & Hugh Gravelle & Carol Propper, 2013. "Does quality affect patients’ choice of doctor? Evidence from the UK," Working Papers 088cherp, Centre for Health Economics, University of York.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kurt R. Brekke & Luigi Siciliani & Odd Rune Straume, 2018. "Can Competition Reduce Quality?," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 174(3), pages 421-447, September.
    2. Kurt R. Brekke & Luigi Siciliani & Odd Rune Straume, 2017. "Hospital Mergers with Regulated Prices," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 119(3), pages 597-627, July.
    3. Domenico Lisi & Luigi Siciliani & Odd Rune Straume, 2020. "Hospital competition under pay‐for‐performance: Quality, mortality, and readmissions," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 289-314, April.
    4. Siciliani, Luigi & Rune Straume, Odd & Cellini, Roberto, 2013. "Quality competition with motivated providers and sluggish demand," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 2041-2061.
    5. repec:nip:nipewp:10/2014 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Kristensen, Søren Rud & Siciliani, Luigi & Sutton, Matt, 2016. "Optimal price-setting in pay for performance schemes in health care," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 57-77.
    7. Oddvar Kaarboe & Luigi Siciliani, 2011. "Multi‐tasking, quality and pay for performance," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(2), pages 225-238, February.
    8. Brekke, Kurt R. & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2012. "Quality competition with profit constraints," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 642-659.
    9. David Bardey & Luigi Siciliani, 2021. "Nursing‐homes' competition and distributional implications when the market is two‐sided," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 472-500, May.
    10. Olivella, Pau & Siciliani, Luigi, 2017. "Reputational concerns with altruistic providers," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 1-13.
    11. Siciliani, Luigi, 2007. "Paying for Performance with Altruistic or Motivated Providers," CEPR Discussion Papers 6452, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Brekke, Kurt Richard & Siciliani, Luigi, 2011. "Quality competition with profit constraints: Do non-profit firms provide higher quality than for-profit firms?," CEPR Discussion Papers 8284, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. repec:zbw:rwirep:0507 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Nadja Kairies-Schwarz, 2014. "Altruism Heterogeneity and Quality Competition Among Healthcare Providers," Ruhr Economic Papers 0507, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    15. De Chiara, Alessandro & Manna, Ester, 2022. "Firms' ownership, employees’ altruism, and product market competition," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    16. Kairies-Schwarz, Nadja, 2014. "Altruism Heterogeneity and Quality Competition Among Healthcare Providers," Ruhr Economic Papers 507, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    17. Hennig-Schmidt, Heike & Wiesen, Daniel, 2014. "Other-regarding behavior and motivation in health care provision: An experiment with medical and non-medical students," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 156-165.
    18. Mathias Kifmann & Luigi Siciliani, 2017. "Average‐Cost Pricing and Dynamic Selection Incentives in the Hospital Sector," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(12), pages 1566-1582, December.
    19. Mak, Henry Y., 2018. "Managing imperfect competition by pay for performance and reference pricing," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 131-146.
    20. Ghandour, Ziad & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2022. "Investment and quality competition in healthcare markets," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    21. Robert Dur & Amihai Glazer, 2004. "Optimal Incentive Contracts when Workers envy their Boss," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 04-046/1, Tinbergen Institute, revised 13 Jun 2006.
    22. Siciliani, Luigi, 2006. "Selection of treatment under prospective payment systems in the hospital sector," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 479-499, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    hospitals; competition; quality; equity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • L31 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs; Social Entrepreneurship

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bri:cmpowp:12/296. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cmbriuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.