7 research outputs found
The Pleasures and Pains of Self-Employment: A Panel Data Analysis of Satisfaction with Life, Work, and Leisure
We investigate how a transition from paid employment to self-employment in the labor market influences life satisfaction. Furthermore, we consider the dynamics of work and leisure satisfaction because the balance between work and leisure is an important element of life satisfaction. Fixed-effects regressions using German Socio-Economic Panel data (1984-2012) reveal that switching to self-employment benefits life and work satisfaction. The effects on life satisfaction are weak and temporary, but they are pronounced and relatively persistent for work satisfaction. However, the gain in work satisfaction is outweighed by a decrease in leisure satisfaction, thus placing work-life balance under severe pressure
Cost efficiency in primary care contracting: A stochastic frontier cost function approach
The principal aim of this paper is to estimate a stochastic frontier cost
function and an inefficiency effects model in the analysis of the primary
health care services purchased by the public authority and supplied by 180
providers in 1996 in Catalonia. The evidence from our sample does not support
the premise that contracting out has helped improve purchasing cost
efficiency in primary care. Inefficient purchasing cost was observed in the
component of this purchasing cost explicitly included in the contract between
purchaser and provider. There are no observable incentives for the
contracted-out primary health care teams to minimise prescription costs, which
are not explicitly included in the present contracting system