Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research - Research Publications
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ItemNo Preview AvailableNursing Home Competition, Prices, and Quality: A Scoping Review and Policy Lessons(OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC, 2022-08-12)BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: In recent years, countries have increasingly relied on markets to improve efficiency, contain costs, and maintain quality in aged care. Under the right conditions, competition can spur providers to compete by offering better prices and higher quality of services. However, in aged care, market failures can be extensive. Information about prices and quality may not be readily available and search costs can be high. This study undertakes a scoping review on competition in the nursing home sector, with an emphasis on empirical evidence in relation to how competition affects prices and quality of care. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Online databases were used to identify studies published in the English language between 1988 and 2020. A total of 50 studies covering 9 countries are reviewed. RESULTS: The review finds conflicting evidence on the relationship between competition and quality. Some studies find greater competition leading to higher quality, others find the opposite. Institutional features such as the presence of binding supply restrictions on nursing homes and public reporting of quality information are important considerations. Most studies find greater competition tends to result in lower prices, although the effect is small. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: The literature offers several key policy lessons, including the relationship between supply restrictions and quality, which has implications on whether increasing subsidies can result in higher quality and the importance of price transparency and public reporting of quality.
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ItemNursing Home Competition, Prices and Quality: A Review and Some Lessons for Australia(Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, 2020-06-01)In recent years, with the aim of containing cost pressure and improving efficiency, many countries have begun to introduce market mechanisms into the aged care sector. Under the right conditions, competition can spur providers to compete by cutting costs, offering better prices and higher quality of services. However, in aged care, market failures can be severe. Information about prices and quality may not be readily available and search costs can be high. This study undertakes a scoping review of the literature on competition in the nursing home sector, with an emphasis on research examining how competition affects prices and quality of care. Online databases were used to identify studies in English language published between 1988–2020. A total of 44 publications covering nine countries are included in this review. On the relationship between competition and quality, the literature offers conflicting evidence. Some studies find greater competition leading to higher quality, while others find the opposite effect. Institutional features such as the presence of binding supply restrictions on nursing homes and public release of information on quality appear to be important considerations. On the price effect of competition, most studies find that greater competition tends to result in lower prices, although the effect is small. The literature offers several lessons for Australia, including whether increasing subsidies can result in higher quality and the role of public reporting of quality ratings in fostering competition.
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ItemParents' Demand for Sugar Sweetened Beverages for Their Pre-School Children: Evidence from a Stated-Preference Experiment(Oxford University Press (OUP), 2020-03-01)Consumption of sugar sweetened beverages exhibits strong associations with weight gain, obesity, and dental caries, especially in young children. The aim of this article is to estimate price elasticities for parents' sugar-sweetened beverages consumption choices with respect to their pre-school children and to estimate elasticities with respect to nutritional attribute labels across sugar-sweetened beverages. Our results show that 1% increase in the price of fizzy drink, juice and cordial would reduce pre-school children's consumption of each drink by 0.80%, 0.51%, and 0.34% respectively. Such price effects on children's consumption do not substantially differ between high and low-income respondents but the effect on the children's Fizzy Drink consumption is significantly larger for respondents from large households than those from small households and are significantly lower than the price effects on the consumption of the rest of the family for Juice and Cordial. The marginal effects of demand with respect to nutritional attribute labels of sugar-sweetened beverages matter for Juice and Cordial, and are strongest for low-income families; however, these effects do not substantially differ between large and small-household respondents.