Privatization and Quality: Evidence from Elderly Care in Sweden

Giancarlo Spagnolo (), Mats A. Bergman () and Sofia Lundberg ()
Additional contact information
Giancarlo Spagnolo: Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics, Postal: Stockholm School of Economics, P.O. Box 6501, SE-113 83 Stockholm, Sweden
Mats A. Bergman: Södertörn University

No 19, SITE Working Paper Series from Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics

Abstract: Many quality dimensions are hard to contract upon and are at risk of degradation when services are procured rather than produced in-house. However, procurement may foster performance-improving innovation. We assemble a large data set on elderly care services in Sweden between 1990 and 2009, including survival rates - our measure of non-contractible quality - and subjectively perceived quality of service. We estimate how procurement from private providers affects these measures using a difference-in-difference approach. The results indicate that procurement significantly increases non-contractible quality as measured by survival rate, reduces the cost per resident but does not affect subjectively perceived quality.

Keywords: elderly care; incomplete contracts; limited enforcement; mortality; non-contractible quality; outsourcing; nursing homes; performance measurement; perceived quality; privatization; procurement. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H57 I18 L33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 52 pages
Date: 2012-11-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-dem, nep-eur and nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Privatization and quality: Evidence from elderly care in Sweden (2016)
Working Paper: Privatization and Quality: Evidence from Elderly Care in Sweden (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:hasite:0019

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