Efficiency in the production of health and allocation of health resources - econometric analysis

Abstract

The concerns about the reasons for continual rapid increases in health expenditures have driven both government and consumers to seek ways to encourage the health services sectors to be more efficient. The economic aspects of health have widely accepted and contributed to these sectors since the late 1960s. This thesis deals with the three issues on an efficiency in the production of infant``s and child``s health and the allocation of health resources. With regard to the production of child``s health, the first issue is how the mother``s education influences the efficiency of production of child``s health through her decision about the allocation of her time, her selection of type and quality of nutrition, home environment, health care and her choice of the production method of the child``s health. The second one in terms of the production of infant``s health is that comprehensive behavioral approach to improve the infant``s health is more cost-effective than the traditional clinical approach. The last one related to the allocation of the health resources is to investigate the effects of medical student training program on the cost and productivity of health centers which treat primary care in ambulatory settings. Major contributions of this thesis can be summarized as follows: first, we make an attempt to do an integrated study of the allocation of time within the framework of the household production of health. As far as we know, no similar studies are conducted about middle income countries. Second, when we consider that the level of mother``s education plays a decisive role in determining her health behaviour, the investment in women``s education can give a policy maker the insight to be likely to yield a return commensurate with or greater than the investment in men``s education. Third, we reexamine the effectiveness of traditional clinical prenatal care and propose a new more promising approach which is designed to demonstrate a more comprehensive integra...