Esther Mot

Modeling healthcare expenditures: overview of the literature and evidence from a panel time-series model

The rapid growth of healthcare expenditures in the past 40 years in many industrial countries has contributed to an improvement in life expectancy and the quality of life, but has also jeopardized the sustainability of public budgets. For the future, it is important to get more insight into the determinants of this growth. Factors, such as aging, income growth and technological development have been discussed extensively. In this review, we want to pay attention to a somewhat neglected factor: the increase in the relative price of healthcare. Owing to the Baumol effect, healthcare tends to become more expensive over time. How does the demand for healthcare react to this price increase?

How European Nations Care for Their Elderly: A New Typology of Long-Term Care Systems

Table of Contents: Introduction; Evidence and analysis; Policy implications and recommendations; Research parameters;

Reconsidering Government Intervention in Hospital Bankruptcies: The Case of the Netherlands

In this paper, we assess the optimality of bankruptcies among hospitals in the Netherlands. Following the standard principles of bankruptcy theory, there is no strong case for governments to support hospitals that are in financial distress. Such intervention reduces hospitals’ incentives to avoid bankruptcies and also potentially allows inefficient hospitals to continue to operate. Within the context of the Netherlands, however, the question emerges whether this principle also holds for general hospitals that are faced with the non-profit constraint. In the absence of government intervention, there is a higher risk of too early liquidation. We therefore argue that more market dynamics is needed by allowing private equity in hospitals’ capital structure, thus releasing entry barriers.