Gutiérrez-Hernández Pedro, Abásolo-Alessón Ignacio
Departamento de Economía Aplicada y Métodos Cuantitativos, Facultad de Economía, Empresa y Turismo, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain.
Cost Eff Resour Alloc. 2021 Jan 19;19(1):4. doi: 10.1186/s12962-021-00258-8.
This study aims to analyse the relative importance of the health care sector (health care activities and services), its interrelations with the rest of productive activities, aggregate supply and demand, employment requirements and apparent labour productivity in the European Union (EU) economy as a whole, and in the economies of member countries.
The methodology used is based on input-output analysis. Data are extracted from National Accounts and, specifically, from the input-output framework for 2010. Data in national currencies are adjusted using as a conversion factor, specific purchasing power parities for health.
In the EU, market production predominates in the provision of health care activities, which are financed mainly by public funding. However, there is significant variability among countries, and, in fact, non-market production predominates in most EU countries. The health care sector has direct backward and forward linkages lower than the average for all sectors of the economy and the average for the services sector. Thus, this sector is relatively independent of the rest of the productive structure in the EU. The health care activities industry is key because of its ability to generate value added and employment. Regarding apparent labour productivity, there are significant differences among EU countries, showing that productivity is positively related to the weight of market production in health care activities and negatively related to the number of hours worked per person employed.
Our results provide useful insights for health authorities in the EU, as they analyse the effect of health policies on macroeconomic indicators using an input-output framework, as well as comparing these effects with those in EU member countries. To the best of our knowledge, an analysis of the health care sector in the EU economy and the countries that integrate it using an input-output framework has not been undertaken. In addition, to compare health care expenditure between countries, data in national currencies have been adjusted using specific purchasing power parities for "health", and not ones referring to the total economy (GDP), which is common practice in many previous studies.
本研究旨在分析医疗保健部门（医疗保健活动与服务）在欧盟（EU）整体经济以及各成员国经济中的相对重要性，及其与其他生产活动、总供给与总需求、就业需求和表观劳动生产率的相互关系。
所采用的方法基于投入产出分析。数据取自国民账户，具体而言，取自2010年的投入产出框架。以各国货币表示的数据使用特定的卫生购买力平价作为转换因子进行调整。
在欧盟，医疗保健活动的提供以市场生产为主，主要由公共资金提供资金。然而，各国之间存在显著差异，实际上，大多数欧盟国家非市场生产占主导。医疗保健部门的直接后向和前向联系低于经济所有部门的平均水平以及服务业的平均水平。因此，该部门在欧盟相对独立于其他生产结构。医疗保健活动行业因其创造附加值和就业的能力而至关重要。关于表观劳动生产率，欧盟国家之间存在显著差异，表明生产率与医疗保健活动中市场生产的权重呈正相关，与人均工作小时数呈负相关。
我们的结果为欧盟卫生当局提供了有用的见解，因为他们使用投入产出框架分析卫生政策对宏观经济指标的影响，并将这些影响与欧盟成员国的影响进行比较。据我们所知，尚未使用投入产出框架对欧盟经济及其成员国的医疗保健部门进行分析。此外，为了比较各国之间的医疗保健支出，已使用特定的“卫生”购买力平价而非许多先前研究中常用的总经济（国内生产总值）购买力平价对各国货币数据进行调整。
