Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/33975 
Year of Publication: 
2006
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 2520
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Using the 1997-1998 New South Wales public-hospitals comparison data, we investigate the hospital-level inefficiency by applying a stochastic-frontier multiproduct cost function. We use a flexible translog cost function to reduce the measurement errors of the outputs of the hospital. The main findings are: First, inefficiency accounts for 9.3% of total hospital costs in large hospitals and 11.3% in small hospitals, when including complexity indicators. Second, diseconomies of scale exist in very large hospitals, whereas scale economies appear in very small hospitals. Third, scope effects are found in both large and small hospitals. Fourth, small hospitals are more labor-intensive than large hospitals are.
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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