Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. 2014 Feb;42(1):20-9. doi: 10.1111/cdoe.12054. Epub 2013 Jun 1.
We investigated the determinants of disparities in the regional density of private dentists in Austria. Specifically, we focused on the relationship between the density of private dentists and their public counterparts, thereby controlling for other possible covariates of dentist density.
Dentist density was measured at the district level. We used panel data of dentist density from 121 Austrian districts over the years 2001-2008. We applied a Hausman-Taylor framework to cope with possible endogeneity and to control for cross-district effects in the dentist density.
A significant negative relationship was found between the density of private and public dentists, indicating a substitution effect between the two dentist groups. A significant positive spatial relationship also existed for private and public dentists in the neighboring regions. Dental capacities in public and private hospitals and dental laboratories run by the public health insurance system did not have a significant effect on private dentist density.
Although a strong negative relationship existed between private and public dentists within the districts, one should not draw the conclusion that private dentists in Austria are close substitutes for public dentists. Such a conclusion would require further empirical analysis on the utilization patterns of dental services and their relationships with financing mechanisms.
我们研究了奥地利私人牙医区域密度差异的决定因素。具体而言，我们专注于私人牙医密度与其公共对应物之间的关系，从而控制了牙医密度的其他可能协变量。
以地区为单位衡量牙医密度。我们使用了 2001-2008 年 121 个奥地利地区的牙医密度面板数据。我们应用豪斯曼-泰勒框架来应对可能的内生性问题，并控制牙医密度的跨地区效应。
发现私人和公共牙医的密度之间存在显著的负相关关系，表明这两个牙医群体之间存在替代效应。在相邻地区，私人和公共牙医之间也存在显著的正空间关系。公共和私人医院的牙科能力以及公共医疗保险系统运营的牙科实验室对私人牙医密度没有显著影响。
尽管在地区内私人和公共牙医之间存在很强的负相关关系，但不应得出奥地利私人牙医是公共牙医的紧密替代品的结论。这样的结论需要进一步对牙科服务的使用模式及其与融资机制的关系进行实证分析。
