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Assessment of regional productive performance of European health systems under a metatechnology framework

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  • Bonasia, Mariangela
  • Kounetas, Konstantinos
  • Oreste, Napolitano

Abstract

Within last seventy years, healthcare spending in Europe has grown faster than national income. However, this does not always translate into good health indicators, suggesting a problem of efficiency in different European health systems. This paper analyzes the efficiency of such systems for 185 European regions in 17 countries by grouping them into three clusters according to their institutional setting: regulation, funding and service provision. We investigate their productive performance by adopting a metafrontier framework for exploring the role of technological spillovers. Our findings suggest that the three European health systems show similar efficiency performance; the best performers are regions that have adopted social healthcare insurance; kernel analysis indicates that there is convergence toward a single club in each frontier. Finally, we find a dramatic change in the convergence process after the nancial crisis, with European regions converging toward different groups with different levels of efficiency.

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  • Bonasia, Mariangela & Kounetas, Konstantinos & Oreste, Napolitano, 2020. "Assessment of regional productive performance of European health systems under a metatechnology framework," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 234-248.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:84:y:2020:i:c:p:234-248
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2019.04.013
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    Cited by:

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    3. Nikolaos, Chatzistamoulou & Theodoros, Antonakis & Konstantinos, Kounetas, 2020. "Salary cap and National Basketball Association teams' productive performance. A two stage Data Envelopment Analysis approach under a metatechnology framework," MPRA Paper 98811, University Library of Munich, Germany.
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    6. Dino Rizzi & Michele Zanette, 2021. "Potential efficiency gains and expenditure savings in the Italian Regional Healthcare Systems," Politica economica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 2, pages 187-214.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    European regions; Health system; Directional distance function; Metafrontier; Technological spillover;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • R10 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - General
    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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