Open AccessCompetition and Quality: Evidence from the NHS Internal Market 1991–9 *
Author(s) -
Propper Carol,
Burgess Simon,
Gossage Denise
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
the economic journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.683
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1468-0297
pISSN - 0013-0133
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0297.2007.02107.x
Subject(s) - competition (biology) , quality (philosophy) , business , industrial organization , biology , ecology , physics , quantum mechanics
This article exploits policy change by the UK government to identify the impact of competition on quality. It uses differences in competition over time and space to examine the impact of competition in an environment with limited quality signals in which hospitals competed mainly on price. Using AMI mortality as a measure of hospital quality we find that the relationship between competition and this measure of quality is negative. We also find that competition reduced waiting times. Our results indicate that hospitals in competitive markets reduced unmeasured and unobserved quality in order to improve measured and observed waiting times.