CHE Seminar Series: The Role of Top Managers in the Public Sector: Evidence from the English NHS
Governments have reformed public services by adopting private sector governance models that grant top directors greater autonomy, responsibility for meeting key targets, and performance-based rewards. We examine a central plank of this approach--that directors can impact the organizations they run--in the context of English public hospitals, complex organizations with multi-million turnover. Our findings reveal little evidence that top directors affect hospital production, although pay differentials suggest they are perceived as distinct by the market. The results question the effectiveness of blindly mimicking the private sector to bring about improvements in public sector performance. (JEL H51, I11, L32, M12)
Speaker profile
Carol Propper is Professor of Economics at Imperial College Business School, London. Her research seeks to increase understanding of the factors that affect the production of public services and outcomes for users of these services, with a particular focus on healthcare. Her publications include papers on the effect of market incentives on the quality and productivity of healthcare, the impact of environmental factors on health, the effect of competition on public service production, equity in health and healthcare and understanding the links between environmental shocks and health outcomes. She has twice been awarded the Arrow Award for the best paper in the field of health economics and received the American Economic Association 2016 prize for the best paper published in the American Economic Journal: Policy. In 2010 she was awarded a CBE and in 2020 a DBE for her services to economics and public health. She is a Fellow of the British Academy, an International Fellow of the National Academy of Medicine and a past President of the Royal Economic Society.
Weekly seminar series
As part of our Centre's vibrant research culture, we host a weekly seminar series. Visiting and invited researchers present current research relating to the economics of health and wellbeing, and the healthcare sector. Visitors are welcome to join these sessions where discussion and debate is encouraged.
For further information on our seminar series, please contact Trong-Anh.Trinh@monash.edu
Event Details
- Date:
- 20 November 2024 at 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
- Venue:
- Caulfield campus, Building K, level 2, room K2.01
- Categories:
- CHE Seminar; General
Description
Governments have reformed public services by adopting private sector governance models that grant top directors greater autonomy, responsibility for meeting key targets, and performance-based rewards. We examine a central plank of this approach--that directors can impact the organizations they run--in the context of English public hospitals, complex organizations with multi-million turnover. Our findings reveal little evidence that top directors affect hospital production, although pay differentials suggest they are perceived as distinct by the market. The results question the effectiveness of blindly mimicking the private sector to bring about improvements in public sector performance. (JEL H51, I11, L32, M12)
Speaker profile
Carol Propper is Professor of Economics at Imperial College Business School, London. Her research seeks to increase understanding of the factors that affect the production of public services and outcomes for users of these services, with a particular focus on healthcare. Her publications include papers on the effect of market incentives on the quality and productivity of healthcare, the impact of environmental factors on health, the effect of competition on public service production, equity in health and healthcare and understanding the links between environmental shocks and health outcomes. She has twice been awarded the Arrow Award for the best paper in the field of health economics and received the American Economic Association 2016 prize for the best paper published in the American Economic Journal: Policy. In 2010 she was awarded a CBE and in 2020 a DBE for her services to economics and public health. She is a Fellow of the British Academy, an International Fellow of the National Academy of Medicine and a past President of the Royal Economic Society.
Weekly seminar series
As part of our Centre's vibrant research culture, we host a weekly seminar series. Visiting and invited researchers present current research relating to the economics of health and wellbeing, and the healthcare sector. Visitors are welcome to join these sessions where discussion and debate is encouraged.
For further information on our seminar series, please contact Trong-Anh.Trinh@monash.edu