An Empirical Study on the Dynamic Evolution of Health Production Efficiency and Its Influencing Factors in China——Based on Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA)

Abstract

Abstract Exploring the evolution law of health production efficiency and its influencing factors in China is conducive to maximizing the promotion of health output under the constraints of limited resources, and is useful for alleviating medical resource shortages and solving the problems of expensive and difficult medical treatment and medical treatment for the public. The stochastic frontier production function is used to calculate the health production efficiency in China and discuss its evolution law using panel data from 31 provinces in China from 2002 to 2018. At the same time, the factors that affect the health production efficiency are empirically tested. The study discovered that China's regional health production efficiency exhibits a spiral rise—a relatively stable evolution trend, and overall efficiency performance is acceptable. There are significant spatial differences in regional health production efficiency. The efficiency gap between the country and the three traditional economic zones tends to narrow. In addition, with the exception of Northwest China, the efficiency of other comprehensive economic zones has absolute convergence characteristics. The level of urbanization, the degree of government attention, the reform of the medical and health system, and population density all have a positive impact on health production efficiency. Medical insurance coverage has not passed the significance test. Despite unfavorable factors such as current exam-oriented education and the continuous expansion of college enrollment, the increase in the number of years of education received by residents did not promote, but rather hampered, the efficiency of regional health production.