Resilient managed competition during pandemics: Lessons from the Italian experience

One of the main governance decisions that policymakers need to make is whether to implement public services via centralised or decentralised forms. As Costa et al. discuss in their manuscript, when public services are implemented via competing systems, service providers contend to provide good servi...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Bel i Queralt, Germà, 1963-; Esteve Laporta, Marc
Tipo de documento: Artículo
Estado:Accepted version
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/184520
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/184520
Nivel de acceso:Acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Descentralització administrativa
Serveis sanitaris
COVID-19
Integració vertical
Decentralization in government
Health services
Vertical integration
Descripción
Sumario:One of the main governance decisions that policymakers need to make is whether to implement public services via centralised or decentralised forms. As Costa et al. discuss in their manuscript, when public services are implemented via competing systems, service providers contend to provide good services with the ultimate objective of gaining market quota. This is known as managed competition (MC), as the authorities will have to manage the panoply of public and private organizations offering the service. The alternative is to manage the service more centrally, in what it is identified as vertical integration. As the authors describe, several governments around the globe have abandoned their vertical integrated models in favour of decentralized models. This is the case, as the authors recall, for most health services in Europe. While there is an emerging body of evidence suggesting that decentralized MC outperforms vertically integrated models both in terms of efficiency and in terms of service quality, little is known on how these systems react under different circumstances. This means, for example, how these systems can cope with a sudden increase in their service demands.