Corruption and health expenditure in Italy

Lagravinese, Raffaele and Paradiso, Massimo (2012): Corruption and health expenditure in Italy.

Abstract

The vulnerability of health sector to corruption lies in the complex interaction between the social environment and the institutional setting of health systems. We investigate this interaction in the case of Italy, speci�cally looking at the impact of corruption on health expenditure. In Italy corruption is a social phenomenon. Health sector has been often involved in corruption o¤ences and decentralized health expenditure is considerably out of control. We show that the impact of corruption on health expenditure is positive, along with ageing population, technological change and supply factors inducing demand in pharmaceuticals and hospitalization. Moreover, the empirical analysis demonstrates that corruption a¤ects pharmaceutical expenditure and accredited private hospital expenditure, suggesting implications for health governance and policy.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: health expenditures, corruption, panel data, sur model
• Subjects: H - Public Economics > H5 - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies > H51 - Government Expenditures and Health; H - Public Economics > H7 - State and Local Government ; Intergovernmental Relations > H75 - State and Local Government: Health ; Education ; Welfare ; Public Pensions; K - Law and Economics > K1 - Basic Areas of Law > K14 - Criminal Law

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