Jadwiga Suchecka

University of Łódź,

Łódź, Poland,

suchecka@uni.lodz.pl

ANALYSIS OF HOUSEHOLD EXPENDITURES DIVERSIFICATION

ON HEALTHCARE USING STRUCTURAL-GEOGRAPHIC METHODS

Elźbieta Antczak

University of Łódź,

Łódź, Poland,

wiszniewska@uni.lodz.pl

 Abstract.The aim of this paper is to analyse using spatial concentration measures and dynamic shift-share, regional diversification of expenditures made by households from their personal incomes on treatment and various medical investigations, medicines and pharmaceutics, informal charges, gifts as proof of sincere gratitude for the care received, and charges in public hospitals. Poland’s voivodeships were used as the set of regions. The analysis was based on the statistical data for 2000-2013 derived from social diagnosis. The research questions included the following: spatial diversification of the phenomenon by voivodeship, identifying those areas characterised by above-average concentration (or the lack thereof) of expenditure volume compared to other voivodeships, verifying the occurrence of strong concentrations or dispersions of the phenomenon in time and space depending on the variable category, analyzing the pace of and the changes in the volume of expenditures in time and space and indicating the cause for these changes depending on the structure of expenditures or competitiveness of a region.

Received: March, 2016

1st Revision: May, 2016

Accepted: June, 2016

DOI: 10.14254/2071- 789X.2016/9-3/11

JEL Classification: I1, D13, D31, C46

Keywords: health care expenditures, regional spatial diversification and concentration, dynamic shift-share analysis.