Is austerity good for efficiency, at least? A counterfactual assessment for the Italian NHS

Calogero Guccio (), Pignataro, G.;, Romeo, D.; and Vidoli, F.;

Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers from HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York

Abstract: In recent decades, austerity measures have been widely adopted in public healthcare systems, so as to cope with financial constraints. This paper assesses the impact of a specific policy implemented in some Italian regions since 2007 with the purpose of reducing their healthcare spending deficit, the so called Recovery Plans (Piani di rientro), on the technical efficiency of their hospitals. Using a unique sample of administrative data relative to a large panel of hospitals in the period 2003-2010, and employing, as identification strategy, the exogenous introduction of the austerity policy in some regions, we find that the policy had a detrimental effect on the efficiency of the hospitals operating in the regions subjected to the policy. The results show that the efficiency loss grows over time, suggesting the existence of negative cumulative effects of the austerity policy.

Keywords: hospitals; recovery plans; technical efficiency; austerity; spending cuts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D24 I10 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff and nep-eur
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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