Health Economics, Policy and Law

Table of Contents - July 2012 - Volume 7, Issue 03  

Articles

Political or dental power in private and public service provision: a study of municipal expenditures for child dental care

Lotte Bøgh Andersena1, Mickael Becha2 and Jørgen Lauridsena2 c1

a1 Department of Political Science, University of Aarhus, Denmark

a2 Institute of Public Health – Health Economics, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark

Abstract

Both professionals and politicians may affect expenditures for highly professional services provided in the public and private sector. We investigated Danish publicly financed child dental care with a special focus on the influence of politicians and dentists on the expenditure level. By studying spatial patterns in expenditure levels across municipalities, we are able to test the influences of these two main actors and the networks through which learning is achieved. Four hypotheses on the existence of different spatial spillover effects are tested. The empirical analysis is based on annual data from 1996 to 2001 for 226 Danish municipalities, thus allowing for the control for heterogeneity between municipalities and for intra-municipal correlations across time. The results point to differences in expenditures between municipalities with privately and publicly produced dental care. Furthermore, dentists appear to be the most important actors for the spatial spillover effects, and these effects are especially strong for municipalities situated in the same county that use private dental clinics. There is no evidence of political spatial spillover effects between municipalities.

(Online publication August 08 2011)

Correspondence:

c1 Correspondence to: Jørgen Lauridsen, J.B.Winsløwvej 9, 1., DK-5000 Odense C, Denmark. Email: jtl@sam.sdu.dk