This chapter presents an analysis of privatisation in Ireland. It discusses the sale of state owned enterprises, the contracting out of refuse colletion services and Public Private Partnership (PPPs). The analysis of the sale of state owned enterprises demonstrates a clear pattern of improved performance prior to change of ownership. The post-privatisation productivity performance is not as cle...

Over the last ten years, an increasing number of countries, both developed and developing, have turned to cont tracting, the subject of the theme issue of the Bulletin, as a means of improving the performance of their health syst tems. Contracting is increasingly used as a tool to manage the relationships between the different types of actors in the health sector. It uses the logic of the marke...

Contracts are fundamental to the engagement of companies in commercial relations. B2B electronic contracting aims to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the contracting process and to provide new opportunities for the contracting parties. Virtual enterprises, for example, can be dynamically formed on the basis of e-contracts. For the implementation of e-contracting in practice, an integ...

INTRODUCTION Contracting out health services is a strategy that many health systems in the developing world are following, despite the lack of decisive evidence that this is the best way to improve quality, increase efficiency and expand coverage. A large body of literature has appeared in recent years focusing on the results of several contracting strategies, but very few papers have addressed...

This Article studies the relationship between formal and informal contract enforcement. The theoretical literature treats the two strategies as separate phenomena. By contrast, a rich experimental literature considers whether the introduction of formal contracting and state enforcement “crowds out” the operation of informal contracting. Both literatures focus too narrowly on how formal contract...

Selective contracting by health insurers and channelling patients to contracted providers is crucial in a health care system based on managed competition, as this should lead to better value for money delivery of healthcare. However, an important consequence for enrolees is that health insurers interfere with their choice of care provider. This scoping review aims to find out what is known abou...

BACKGROUND Contracting-out non-state providers to deliver a minimum package of essential health services is an increasingly common health service delivery mechanism in conflict-affected settings, where government capacity and resources are particularly constrained. Afghanistan, the longest-running example of Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS) contracting in a conflict-affected setting, ena...