A major feature of the health sector is the existence of health insurance, either public or private. Often both coexist in the same country. Public health insurance is often accompanied by public provision of health care. We consider two main areas of public–private interface: in funding of...

Using a spatial competition framework with three ex ante identical hospitals, we study the effects of a hospital merger on quality, price and welfare. The merging hospitals always reduce quality, but the non-merging hospital responds by reducing quality if prices are fixed and increasing quality...