Marina Cavalieri, Calogero Guccio and Ilde Rizzo
This paper aims at contributing to the research on the role played by corruption in the health procurement by use non-parametric techniques to examine whether the efficient…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims at contributing to the research on the role played by corruption in the health procurement by use non-parametric techniques to examine whether the efficient execution of Italian public contracts for healthcare infrastructures is affected by socio-economic variables (including the level of “environmental” corruption) in the area where the work is localised and by the institutional features of the contracting authority.
Design/methodology/approach
A data envelopment analysis (DEA) is applied to a sample of 405 contracts during the period 2000-2005. Smoothed bootstrap techniques to calculate confidence intervals for the estimated efficiency parameters along with different non-parametric tests and kernel density estimates are used.
Findings
Results show that “environmental” corruption negatively influences the performance of healthcare infrastructures. Furthermore, healthcare contracting authorities appear to be less efficient than other public bodies acting as procurers.
Originality/value
The paper highlights the role of environmental corruption in the provision of healthcare infrastructures.
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Keywords
Rostand Arland Yebetchou Tchounkeu
This work aims to analyse the relationship between public health efficiency and well-being considering a panel of 102 Italian provinces from 2000 to 2016 and evaluates if there…
Abstract
Purpose
This work aims to analyse the relationship between public health efficiency and well-being considering a panel of 102 Italian provinces from 2000 to 2016 and evaluates if there are omitted variable biases and endogeneity biases and also evaluates if there are heterogeneous effects among provinces with different income levels.
Design/methodology/approach
We use a multi-input and output bootstrap data envelopment analysis to assess public health efficiency. Then, we measure well-being indices using the min-max linear scaling transformation technique. A two-stage least squares model is used to identify the causal effect of improving public health efficiency on well-being to account for time-invariant heterogeneity, omitted variable bias and endogeneity bias.
Findings
After controlling for important economic factors, the results show a significant effect of an accountable and efficient public health system on well-being. Those effects are concentrated in the North, the most economically, geographically and environmentally advantageous areas.
Research limitations/implications
The use of the sample mean, probably the oldest and most used method for aggregating the indicators, could be affected by variable compensation, with consequent misleading results in the process of constructing the well-being index. Another limitation is the use of lagged values of the main predictor as an instrument in the instrumental variables setting because it could lead to information loss. Finally, the availability of data over a long period of time.
Practical implications
The findings could help policymakers adopt measures to strengthen the public health system, encourage private providers and inspire countries worldwide.
Social implications
These results draw the attention of local authorities, who play an important role in designing and implementing policies to stimulate local public health efficiency, which puts individuals in the conditions of achieving overall well-being in their communities.
Originality/value
For the first time in Italy, a panel of well-being indices was constructed by developing new methodologies based on microeconomic theory. Furthermore, for the first time, the assessment of the relationship between public health efficiency and well-being is carried out using a panel of 102 Italian provinces.
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This paper aims to build on Fred Beard’s study of the world’s archives to identity historical advertising and marketing ephemera, published in this journal in 2018, by focussing…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to build on Fred Beard’s study of the world’s archives to identity historical advertising and marketing ephemera, published in this journal in 2018, by focussing on resources available in Europe to augment his survey.
Design/methodology/approach
Online searching, supplemented by literature emanating from the business archive sector, led to the identification of 177 repositories or online sites in Europe holding advertising and marketing archives of significance for researchers. These are set out in two accompanying tables.
Findings
A wide diversity of European archives that are open to researchers is revealed in this paper. Many are the archives of the business themselves, but a number of collecting repositories are also listed, brought together for the first time.
Research limitations/implications
This paper focusses solely on Europe but does not claim to be comprehensive, as the study was time-limited and readers will, no doubt, know of resources that the author has missed. The findings relate mostly to Western Europe, so there is scope for further study to encompass archives in the former eastern bloc. Exploration of sources in Africa, Asia and Latin America would further supplement Beard’s original study.
Originality/value
This research brings together the broadest list of advertising and marketing sources open to researchers in Europe published to date. As Beard’s focus was more on the Americas, this examination redresses the balance with an array of European sources which, it is hoped, will contribute to the greater use of many little-known or under-researched resources by researchers across the world.