The trade-off between health system resiliency and efficiency: evidence from COVID-19 in European regions

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2024

Authors

Álvaro Almeida (Author) FEP

Journal

Title: European Journal of Health Economics

Vol. 25

Pages: 31-47

ISSN: 1618-7598

Publisher: Springer Nature

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 4 Citations

ISI Web of Science

Scopus - 4 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00X-T5D

DOI: 10.1007/s10198-023-01567-w

Abstract (EN): The objective of this paper was to investigate the existence of a trade-off between health system resilience and the economic efficiency of the health system, using data for 173 regions in the European Union and the European Free Trade Association countries. Data Envelopment Analysis was used to measure the efficiency of regional health systems before the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, a spatial econometrics model was used to estimate whether this measure of efficiency, adjusted for several covariates, has a significant impact on regional health system resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic, measured by the number of COVID-19 deaths per hundred thousand inhabitants. The results show that COVID-19 death rates were significantly higher in regions with higher population density, higher share of employment in industry, and higher share of women in the population. Results also show that regions with higher values of the health system efficiency index in 2017 had significantly higher rates of COVID-19 deaths in 2020 and 2021, suggesting the existence of a trade-off between health system efficiency and health system resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 17