Thomas Topf Care for the Elderly in Germany: Efficiency, Productivity and their Determinants

About this book

By 2030 the number of persons of working age in Germany will drop by 7.5 million to 42.2 million, relative to the reference year 2008. Thus, the social security system in Germany faces a shrinking number of potential contributors while supporting a growing number of benefit recipients cared for by a shrinking number of potential nurses. One way to reduce the burden on the care insurance is to increase the efficiency and productivity of the production of elderly care services.

Thus, the author sets forth to investigate for the first time the technical efficiency and productivity potential in the German long-term care sector using the non-parametric method Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to examine nursing homes and formal home care providers for the years 1999 until 2009. The author then uses regression techniques to identify internal and external characteristics that impact the estimated performance of the elderly care providers, which might be used to influence their performance to decrease their input consumption.