Government Spendingon Health Care and Education in Croatia

This paper assesses the relative efficiency of government spending on health care and education in Croatia by using the so-called Data Envelopment Analysis. The analysis finds evidence of significant inefficiencies in Croatia''s spending on health care and education, related to inadequate cost recovery, weaknesses in the financing mechanisms and institutional arrangements, weak competition in the provision of these services, and weaknesses in targeting public subsidies on health care and education. These inefficiencies suggest that government spending on health and education could be reduced without undue sacrifices in the quality of these services. The paper identifies ways to do that.Government expenditures;health care spending, health care, health spending, hospital beds, infant mortality, public spending, public health, demand for health, public expenditure, health care sector, health care services, health resources, health care workers, health insurance, private spending, public health spending, pharmaceutical spending, demand for health services, health expenditures, health sector, demand for health care, provision of health care, health care system, health care providers, health expenditure, pharmaceutical expenditure, medical services, health care policy, primary health care, health care systems, health outcome indicators, health care expenditures, health indicators, insurance system, health insurance fund, capital expenditure, health institutions, provision of services, capital spending, private expenditure on health, public health care, cost of health care, competition among health care providers, national health, care systems, pocket payment, health system, health insurance system, health workers, medical technology, cost sharing, hard budget constraints