This paper makes use of a unique "natural experiment" in the design of intergovernmental grants. The State of Ohio has dramatically altered the method by which local public mental health care is financed. The manner in which the grant mechanism has been altered allows for the estimation of...

The effect of competition on the quality of health care remains a contested issue. Most empirical estimates rely on inference from non experimental data. In contrast, this paper exploits a pro-competitive policy reform to provide estimates of the impact of competition on hospital outcomes. The...

The impacts of choice in public services are controversial. We exploit a reform in the English National Health Service to assess the impact of relaxing constraints on patient choice. We estimate a demand model to evaluate whether increased choice increased demand elasticity faced by hospitals...

The nature, and normative properties, of competition in health care markets has long been the subject of much debate. In particular, policymakers have exhibited a great deal of reservation toward competition in health care markets, as demonstrated by the plethora of regulations governing the...

What is the nature of the industrial organization of the market for physician services? Is the market 'competitive?' Are there pareto-relevant market failures, such that there is room for welfare improving policies? Economists have devoted a great deal of attention to this market, but it remains...

We use the 1996 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey to estimate a model of household demand for employer-based health insurance, explicitly investigating differences in behavior between households with two potential sources of coverage and those with one source. Own and cross-price elasticities are...