Effectiveness of public health expenditures: A study on Türkiye and OECD countries

The subject of this study is to reveal the effectiveness of public health expenditures by comparing Türkiye and OECD countries with economic and social indicators. In the study, it was aimed to determine the efficiency of the public health expenditures of the countries and the variables affecting the efficiency scores by measuring the efficiency of public health expenditures in Türkiye and OECD countries in the 2010-2021 period with Data Envelopment Analysis separately for all years in the relevant period. In this context, as a result of literature review, 4 input and 7 output variables were selected and health data of 35 OECD countries were analyzed. In the study, analysis results are presented according to both output-oriented CCR models for the assumption of constant returns to scale and output-oriented BCC models for the assumption of variable returns to scale. Since public health expenditures, which are a type of public service, are non-profit and outputs are at the forefront, the output-oriented CCR model of Data Envelopment Analysis, which is based on the assumption of constant returns to scale, was taken as a basis and the data of 2021, which was examined as the last year, was used for ineffective decision-making units according to the analysis results. By creating reference sets, potential improvement rates were calculated. As a result of the study, it was concluded that, according to the output-oriented CCR model, 18 out of 35 OECD countries are effective in terms of health indicators, while the other 17 countries are not effective. Suggestions have been made regarding which inputs and outputs of ineffective decision-making units should increase or decrease and to what extent in order to achieve effectiveness in accordance with their reference groups.