Cost and technical efficiency of German hospitals

Does ownership matter?

authored by

Annika Herr

Abstract

This paper is the first to investigate both the technical and cost efficiency of more than 1500 German general hospitals. More specifically, it deals with the question how hospital efficiency varies with ownership, patient structure, and other exogenous factors, which are neither inputs to nor outputs of the production process. The empirical results for the years from 2001 to 2003 indicate that private and non-profit hospitals are on average less cost efficient and less technically efficient than publicly owned hospitals. The hospital rankings based on estimated efficiency scores turn out to be negatively correlated with average length of stay, which is highest in private hospitals. The results are derived by conducting a Stochastic Frontier Analysis assuming both Cobb-Douglas and translog production technologies and using a newly available and multifaceted administrative German data set.

External Organisation(s)

Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg)

Type

Article

Journal

Health economics

Volume

17

Pages

1057-1071

No. of pages

15

ISSN

1057-9230

Publication date

09.2008

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Health Policy

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.1388 (Access: Closed)