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The Impact of Hospital Competition on Maternity Care in the English Hospital Market

Abstract The policies focusing on the improvements in the quality of health care services have become very popular in recent years. One of the main government policies which can improve quality in health care can be considered as hospital competition. In this paper, I examine whether, hospital competition can improve the quality indicators for maternity care. I investigate whether increasing competition among NHS (National Health Service) hospitals can lead to any improvements in rate of 28 days of emergency readmissions, baby’s mortality, rate of elective c-sections and rates of birth complications at hospital level after 2010 for England by exploiting a suitable econometric setting (difference in differences design). According to the weighted fixed effects regression, there is some evidence of a reduction in emergency readmissions rate within 28 days of discharge (1 unit increase in market concentration measure reduces emergency readmission rate within 28 days of discharge by almost 0.0004 admissions (per 1000 admissions).

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Analysis of Health Care Markets, Market Concentration, Hospital Competition, Hospital Quality, Applied Econometrics, Weighted Fixed Effects Model

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