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Cost-containment policies and hospital efficiency: evidence from a panel of Italian hospitals

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Abstract
The main objective of this article is to evaluate to which extent the set of national and regional cost control policies implemented in recent years in Italy have affected hospital activity. Our contribution is mainly empirical as we focus our attention on the impact that policies like hospital mergers and regional bailout plans had on inefficiency. We use a rich longitudinal sample of Italian hospitals over the period 1999-2007 and perform a Bayesian analysis of the random-effects stochastic frontier model proposed by Greene (2005), allowing for a one-step estimation of both production frontier parameters and inefficiency effects. Results show that hospital inefficiency has changed over time and that part of this change could be ascribed to the mentioned policies.

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  • Vincenzo Atella & Federico Belotti & Silvio Daidone & Giuseppe Ilardi & Giorgia Marini, 2012. "Cost-containment policies and hospital efficiency: evidence from a panel of Italian hospitals," CEIS Research Paper 228, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 13 Apr 2012.
    • Handle: RePEc:rtv:ceisrp:228
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    2. Boffardi, Raffaele, 2022. "How efficient is the Italian health system? Evidence on the role of political-institutional dynamics," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    3. Fusco, Elisa & Vidoli, Francesco & Rogge, Nicky, 2020. "Spatial directional robust Benefit of the Doubt approach in presence of undesirable output: An application to Italian waste sector," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    4. Ivonne Lindlbauer & Jonas Schreyögg, 2014. "The relationship between hospital specialization and hospital efficiency: do different measures of specialization lead to different results?," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 365-378, December.
    5. Yauheniya Varabyova & Carl Rudolf Blankart & Aleksandra Torbica & Jonas Schreyögg, 2017. "Comparing the Efficiency of Hospitals in Italy and Germany: Nonparametric Conditional Approach Based on Partial Frontier," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 379-394, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Hospital efficiency; Stochastic frontiers; Bayesian inference; Policy evaluation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • L23 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Organization of Production

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