Healthcare efficiency across European countries during the recent economic crisis

In this article, we study the efficiency of European healthcare systems. The analysis was conducted for the period 2006-2012 and used an original database built especially using Eurostat data. The methodology used was Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), which provides a measure of the relative efficiency. The period of analysis is particularly interesting because it includes the recent economic crisis that has affected European countries since 2008. Our results are in line with previous studies and are partially innovative. When the output and input measures generally used for healthcare production functions were employed, the results obtained were in line with those reported in the literature. When new output measures were employed, it was possible to capture the efficiency impact of the recent economic crisis. The crisis implied a general reduction in the efficiency of healthcare systems in most European countries. The results are confirmed by robustness checks carried out using Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA).