Efficiency in Health Care - An Economic Analysis of Red Cross Services in Austria

This paper analyzes supply and demand side characteristics of (voluntary) Red Cross services in Austria. Empirical results are presented based on a CV study on people’s willingness to pay for the maintenance of emergency treatment after injury, transportation services and disaster relief activities. A comparison of aggregated willingness to pay measures with actual cost of the Red Cross system indicates that overall benefits exceed current financial contributions, and therefore, subsidies for Red Cross services seem justifiable. The high percentage of volunteers in the Red Cross organization is responsible for the provision of health-related services at very low cost. Red Cross volunteers are on average younger than the population, they are well-educated and earn above average incomes from their regular occupation. On the basis of a Logit (Probit) analysis it can be shown that the probability to volunteer depends positively on the education level, on whether a person has been personally addressed, on whether she or he is volunteering with some other organization as well, and on whether the respondent works regularly in shifts. Significant negative determinants for volunteering are: Respondent’s age, whether a person is currently employed, and the number of persons in household below 27 years old. Intrinsic motivation is important for the decision to volunteer, and financial incentives play a minor role. However, for the younger Red Cross activists it is not their social attitude which let them volunteer, they rather work voluntarily to continue their own education and for selfrealization reasons. Both the comparably low age of Red Cross volunteers and their changing motives over time will influence future recruitment of voluntary employees in the social area.