Quality-quantity decomposition of income elasticity of U.S. hospital care expenditure using state-level panel data.

Economic theory suggests that income growth could lead to changes in consumption quantity and quality as the spending on a commodity changes. Similarly, the volume and quality of healthcare consumption could rise with incomes because of demographic changes, usage of innovative medical technologies, and other factors. Hospital healthcare spending is the largest component of aggregate US healthcare expenditures.

Production cost structure in US outpatient physical therapy health care.

This paper investigates the technology cost structure in US physical therapy care. We exploit formal economic theories and a rich national data of providers to tease out implications for operational cost efficiencies. The 2008-2009 dataset comprising over 19 000 bi-weekly, site-specific physical therapy center observations across 28 US states and Occupational Employment Statistics data (Bureau of Labor Statistics) includes measures of output, three labor types (clinical, support, and administrative), and facilities (capital).