THE EFFICIENCY OF HEALTHCARE SYSTEM EXPENDITURES

EVIDENCE FROM CROATIA

Authors

Keywords:

Healthcare system expenditures, efficiency, data envelopment analysis, Croatia

Abstract

Offering an efficient healthcare system is one of the main focuses of economic development for every country in the world, including Croatia, in order to achieve a better quality of life and healthcare protection. As a result, there is also a higher standard of living for the citizens. The healthcare system in Croatia has undergone a number of reforms.  For each of the implemented reforms, the objective was to optimize the healthcare system in line with the government’s budget to achieve sustainability in the long run. Therefore, the healthcare financing system and sustainability play an important role. The objective of this paper is to evaluate and analyze the efficiency of average healthcare expenditures in twenty Croatian counties by applying the data envelopment analysis approach. The analysis was conducted for the 2010-2017 period. To assess the performance of the counties, we used three inputs and three outputs. The results revealed significant differences in the efficiency of healthcare expenditures among the Croatian counties. Therefore, the results of scale efficiency showed that, among the twenty Croatian counties, only six counties (Brod-Posavina, Koprivnica-Križevci, Lika-Senj, Međimurje, Vukovar-Srijem and Zagreb) operate at the maximum score.

Author Biographies

Sabina Hodžić, Assistant Professor

Sabina Hodžić is Assistant Professor and Head of the Department of Public Finance at the Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, University of Rijeka (Croatia). Her main fields of research are public finance, international taxation issues and local and regional government. She lectures on public finance and international taxation and is the author of several papers published in scientific journals. She is a member of the Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe, a member of the Croatian Academic Association-Vienna and the Croatian Statistical Association.

Dijana Vuković, Assistant Professor

Dijana Vuković is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Economics, University of Bihac (Bosnia and Herzegovina). She also works as dissertation adviser at the Liverpool University online. Her main fields of research are accounting, public accounting, public audit and public finance. She lectures on Audit and Audit of financial statements and is the author of several papers published in scientific journals.

Adis Muharemović, Senior Assistant

Adis Muharemović currently works as Senior Assistant at the Faculty of Economics, Department of Finance, University of Bihać (Bosnia and Herzegovina). He is a PhD student at the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Rijeka (Croatia). His main fields of research include finance and local and regional government.

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Published

2019-12-26

How to Cite

Hodžić, S., Vuković, D., & Muharemović, A. (2019). THE EFFICIENCY OF HEALTHCARE SYSTEM EXPENDITURES: EVIDENCE FROM CROATIA. Ekonomski vjesnik/Econviews - Review of Contemporary Business, Entrepreneurship and Economic Issues, 32(2), 361–371. Retrieved from https://hrcak.srce.hr/ojs/index.php/ekonomski-vjesnik/article/view/8543

Issue

Vol. 32 No. 2 (2019)

Section

PRELIMINARY COMMUNICATION

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