To empirically test whether, as surveys and anedoctal reports suggest, patients are paying to stay longer in hospital, perceived as resulting in better care (e.g. more professional attention), a unique dataset is constructed on hospital length of stay, severity, unofficial payments and...

In most of the countries in transition from a planned to a market economy (Former Soviet Union (FSU) and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)) patients are routinely asked to pay unofficially for the medicines and other supplies that ought to be free. They are often described as "payments to...

The aim of The Elgar Companion to Health Economics is to take an audience of advanced undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers to the frontier of research in health economics, by providing them with short and easily readable introductions to key topics. The volume brings together 50...