Provision of health care services and regional diversity in Germany: insights from a Bayesian health frontier analysis with spatial dependencies

Rouven Edgar Haschka (), Katharina Schley and Helmut Herwartz
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Rouven Edgar Haschka: Georg-August University of Göttingen
Katharina Schley: Georg-August University of Göttingen
Helmut Herwartz: Georg-August University of Göttingen

The European Journal of Health Economics, 2020, vol. 21, issue 1, No 6, 55-71

Abstract: Abstract The German health care system is among the most patient-oriented systems in Europe. Nevertheless, distinct utilisation patterns, access barriers due to socio-economic profiles, and potentials of misallocation of medical resources lead to disparities in the provision of health care services. We analyse how a possible over- and undersupply of services and the utilisation of and the access to the health care system relate to regional variations in the population’s well-being. For this purpose, we employ a recent Bayesian stochastic frontier approach that allows for spatial dependence structures. Our results indicate that patient migration plays an important role in contributing to regional differences in the utilisation of the medical infrastructure. As a consequence, policy should take spatial patterns of health care utilisation into account to improve the allocation of medical resources.

Keywords: Health production; Health efficiency; Stochastic frontier analysis; Oversupply of medical services; Regional misallocation; Bayesian estimation; Regional and spatial modelling; Markov-chain–Monte Carlo simulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 D61 I11 I18 R10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10198-019-01111-9

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