title: Determinants of health-system efficiency: evidence from OECD countries.
abstract: This paper analyzes the most important determinants of healthcare efficiency across OECD countries. As previously documented in the literature, we first provide evidence of significant differences in the cross-country level of efficiency in healthcare provision. We then investigate how improvements in efficiency can be achieved by considering alternative efficiency indices (parametric and non-parametric) and a novel dataset with information on the characteristics of healthcare systems across OECD countries. Our empirical findings suggest a positive correlation between policies such as increasing the regulation of prices billed by providers and reducing the degree of gate keeping and the efficiency of national healthcare systems.
authors.affiliation: Banco de España, Alcalá 48, 28014 , Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Pablo Hernández
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: de Cos
authors.forename: Enrique
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Moral-Benito
mesh_terms: D001499:Bayes Theorem; D016208:Databases, Factual; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D019049:Developed Countries; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational / Q000706:statistics & numerical data