This paper addresses the following question: Does competition enhance efficiency in markets with quality uncertainty? Using the mechanism design methodology, we characterize the maximal achievable level of efficiency in such markets, and then use this characterization to analyze how maximal efficiency varies with the degree of market competition. We show that the relationship between them is in...

BACKGROUND Managed competition was introduced into the health care system in several countries including the Netherlands, although effects of competition of both providers and health insurers on the price of health care are inconclusive. We investigated the association between competition of both providers (care groups) and health insurers and the price of disease management programmes (DMPs). ...

In the past decade the market paradigm has been adopted as the prima facie candidate for achieving coordination between self-interested, autonomous software agents. In this context, the area of mechanism design has been increasingly applied in order to achieve desired global outcomes based on local interactions, by developing rules of interaction that align the individual needs with social desi...

OBJECTIVES The degrees of market competition usually influence providers' behaviors. This study investigated the influence of medical market competition on the utilization of dental care under the global budget payment system. This study also examined the relative factors that influence the utilization of dental care. METHODS This study used the healthcare sub-regions (HCSRs) in the healthcar...

the iranian banking sector has undergone huge and substantial reform in the last decade; privatization, establishment of private banks and development of modern technologies (it). this paper investigates the competitive condition of the iranian banking industry over the period 2005-2010 using the h-statistic proposed by panzar and rosse. the properties of this non-structural methodology make it...