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Decomposing the determinants of health care expenditure: the case of Spain

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Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the determinants of regional health-care expenditure in Spain. The coexistence of several models concerning the degree of spending power decentralization and financing systems makes Spain a singular case. It also allows us to draw conclusions relevant to other countries in decentralizing their health-care systems, and to understand cross-country differences with estimated parameters. Using data from the Spanish regions for the period 1992–2005, we show that the estimated health public expenditure income elasticity does change depending on the omission of relevant variables, econometric specifications and techniques, and institutional arrangements. Moreover, while demographic structure is a very relevant factor when explaining health-care expenditure dynamics, multicollinearity biases econometric parameter estimates.

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Notes

  1. The Arellano-Bond dynamic panel estimator (xtabond) [1] was also used as an alternative in preliminary estimates, including two lags of the dependent variable in the model in order to reject the null hypothesis of no second-order serial correlation in the residuals. Basic results were the same.

  2. Results hold when only one interaction was included in the econometric specification.

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Acknowledgments

Comments by Bruno Ventelou and Juan Oliva are gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, University of Cantabria, Avda. Los Castros, s/n. 39005, Santander, Spain

    David Cantarero Prieto

  2. REDE, IEB and University of Vigo, Vigo, Spain

    Santiago Lago-Peñas

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  1. David Cantarero Prieto
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  2. Santiago Lago-Peñas
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Correspondence to David Cantarero Prieto.

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Prieto, D.C., Lago-Peñas, S. Decomposing the determinants of health care expenditure: the case of Spain. Eur J Health Econ 13, 19–27 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-010-0276-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-010-0276-9

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