McGuire, Alistair 
ORCID: 0000-0002-5367-9841, Parkin, David, Hughes, David and Gerard, Karen
(1993)
Econometric analysis of health care expenditures: can positive analysis help answer normative questions?
Health Economics, 2 (2).
pp. 113-126.
ISSN 1057-9230
Abstract
The size of national health care expenditure is an important research and policy issue. This paper reviews theoretical and empirical analyses of an implied optimal size for a health sector. Various economic theories are explicitly or implicitly invoked, but none is fully satisfactory. Theory provides, at best, a loose justification for empirical specifications of health sector behaviour. Nevertheless, this has a large and growing empirical research industry. The complexity of the issues provides an excuse for reliance on empirical analyses using ad hoc models. The paper analyses aggregate time-series data, using the cointegration approach, on health, health care expenditures and national income. Only one national model met both statistical criteria and showed a significant relationship: between potential life years lost and health care expenditure in the UK. The case for any general relationships remains unproven. There is no objective scientific method to determine optimal health expenditure, nor should we expect one. However, positive analyses can help with normative questions. A better understanding of health expenditure determination would arise from better specification of the relationships, perhaps by analysis at a lower level of aggregation.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/5749/ho... |
| Additional Information: | © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
| Divisions: | Social Policy LSE Health |
| Subjects: | R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine |
| Date Deposited: | 17 Feb 2009 12:13 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Nov 2024 05:11 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/22796 |
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