Murillo C, Piatecki C, Saez M
University of Barcelona, Spain.
Health Econ. 1993 Jul;2(2):127-28. doi: 10.1002/hec.4730020206.
In this work we have tried to analyse the variations in health care expenditure in all the countries of the European Community except Greece and Portugal. We have wanted to provide additional evidence on the empirical relationship between expenditure on health care and income. Our analysis, starting from the approach of Fuchs and Baumol, has been an extension of the traditional studies on health care international comparisons, in at least three directions: we have not imposed any restrictions on the price effects, we have analysed dynamic models instead of the cross-sectional analysis and we have used proper deflators. We have deflated health care expenditure in each country by means of its sectoral price index and by the purchasing parity power of its currency, to allow international comparisons. In the former case we express health care in terms of 'expenditure', in the latter we express health care in terms of 'weighted quantity'. Income elasticities, in the short and in the long-run, have been estimated using econometric methods that allow us to obtain simultaneously equilibrium long-run relationships, if any, and adjustment processes in the short-run. We have found cointegrating relationships and we have estimated consistent estimators of the elasticities. The estimated income elasticities are greater than one in all the models analysed.
在这项研究中，我们试图分析除希腊和葡萄牙之外的所有欧洲共同体国家医疗保健支出的变化情况。我们希望为医疗保健支出与收入之间的实证关系提供更多证据。我们的分析从富克斯和鲍莫尔的方法出发，在至少三个方面扩展了关于医疗保健国际比较的传统研究：我们没有对价格效应施加任何限制，我们分析的是动态模型而非横截面分析，并且我们使用了恰当的平减指数。为了进行国际比较，我们用每个国家的部门价格指数及其货币的购买力平价对各国的医疗保健支出进行了平减。在前一种情况下，我们用“支出”来表示医疗保健，在后一种情况下，我们用“加权数量”来表示医疗保健。短期和长期的收入弹性是使用计量经济学方法估计的，这些方法使我们能够同时获得均衡的长期关系（如果有的话）以及短期的调整过程。我们发现了协整关系，并估计了弹性的一致估计量。在所分析的所有模型中，估计出的收入弹性都大于1。
