The COVID-19-Induced Transaction Cost Suggests Considerable Cost Effectiveness Resulting from the Prevalence of Universal Health Care in the United States

D. A. Parker
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D. A. Parker: The Society of Fellows of Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, Pace University

A chapter in Biopolitics and Shock Economy of COVID-19, 2023, pp 181-199 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This study models the United States’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic from a transaction cost perspective, with the objective of considering the most efficient delivery of universal health care to the public. The neoclassical framing of production, price, and allocation does not consider the transaction costs resulting from the pandemic’s broad effects on the entire economy. The intention of this study is to focus on transaction cost as a particular feature of cost efficiency analyses. The study reveals the effect of pandemic conditions on transaction-specific health-care assets. It considers the asset of registered nursing labor, specifically the changes in travel nurses’ compensation during the period 2019 to 2020. This study finds that the doctrine of federal preemption instituting universal health care is economizing due to the lower transaction costs associated with the administrative control of transaction-specific assets and the advancement of collaboration between organizations. The COVID-19-induced transaction cost effects on travel nurse compensation reveal the extent to which the private health-care system operates with implicit inefficiency. This study calculates a residual cost index using U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and industry-sourced data.

Keywords: Transaction costs; Pandemic; Health care (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:conchp:978-3-031-27886-0_7

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-27886-0_7

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