Heterogenety in hospitals responses to a financial reform: A random coefficient analysis of the impact of activity-based financing on efficiency

The paper examines the heterogeneity with respect to the impact of a financial reform - Activity Based Financing (ABF) - on hospital efficiency in Norway. Measures of technical efficiency and of cost-efficiency are considered. The data set is from a contiguous ten-year panel of 47 hospitals covering both pre-ABF years and years after its imposition. Substantial heterogeneity in the responses, as measured by both estimated and predicted coefficients, is found. Rank correlations between the estimated/predicted coefficients of the ABF dummy and the pre-ABF/post-ABF efficiencies are examined. Overall, improvement seems to be more pronounced in technical efficiency than in cost-efficiency.