Do markets deliver? Competition and Choice in European healthcare markets
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Propper, Carol
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
In the last two decades European policy makers have sought to increase the use of market mechanisms in the delivery of healthcare. These reforms introduce competition and choice into previously heavily constrained environments. This leads to a set of interesting economic issues that have been addressed in a range of papers, both theoretical and empirical. This paper examines whether this popular reform model has resulted in improvements in outcomes for patients and/or taxpayers. It synthesises the existing economic analyses, highlights what is known and what is not, and signals potential next steps for economic research.
Date Issued
2026-03-14
2025-11
Date Acceptance
2026-03-09
Citation
Economic Journal, 2026
ISSN
0013-0133
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Journal / Book Title
Economic Journal
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2026. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Economic Society. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Identifier
10.1093/ej/ueag033/8524007
Subjects
Choice
competition
healthcare markets
policy reform JEL codes: I11
H42
H44
Publication Status
Published online
Date Publish Online
2026-03-14