Abstract
There is naturally much interest in how well hospitals use their scarce resources. To contribute to this debate in Australia, Valentin Zelenyuk and co-authors Bao Hoang Nguyen, Shawna Grosskopf, and Jongsay Yong published their recent working paper on improving performance within the Australian public hospitals in Queensland. In this seminar, Professor Zelenyuk will share preliminary findings from this research.
In this study the authors investigated the impact of activity-based funding on the performance of hospitals by exploiting a natural experiment that happened in the state of Queensland. Valentin will explain how they examined the outcome of the reform by using a simple measure of performance (the weighted average length of stay) as well as more sophisticated ones (the technical efficiency estimated from data envelopment analysis models, DEA). He will discuss how they studied the causal effect of the activity based funding on the technical efficiency of hospitals, by incorporating difference-in-differences approach in the popular two-stage DEA framework. Valentin will also present their preliminary empirical evidence that activity based funding improves the technical efficiency of hospitals.
This seminar will be available both in-person and online and will provide the audience with a chance to engage in a discussion with Valentin.
About the presenter
Valentin Zelenyuk is a Professor at the School of Economics at the University of Queensland (Australia) and was an ARC Future Fellow (2017-2022), working on the project of Improving productivity: theory and application to Australian hospitals. He is an elected member of the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth group of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Valentin’s research focuses on economic theory of production, productivity and efficiency and related aggregation issues; econometric/statistical estimation; and econometric applications mainly in healthcare, banking and cross-countries economic growth analysis.
He has been active in engagement with governments and industries to help them employ the analytical methods.
Prof. Zelenyuk has co-authored over 70 international peer-reviewed publications. He also co-authored (with Robin Sickles, Rice University) 2019 book, “Measurement of productivity and efficiency: theory and practice”, published by Cambridge University Press, which was highly endorsed by top experts in the field.
Productivity in a Changing World seminar series
At Te Tai Ōhanga – The Treasury, we want to facilitate learning and debate on the important issues facing New Zealand. In 2023 and early 2024 the Treasury Guest Lectures are being organised under the theme: Productivity in a changing world.
This theme recognises that lifting our productivity performance continues to be central to improving New Zealanders’ wellbeing and that we are facing this challenge in the context of significant economic, social and environmental shifts. These shifts will require considerable changes in our economy if we are to sustain and improve our economic and productivity performance.