Health

Hospital finance, care capacity and the economics of delivery.

• What a hospital budget review actually decides

  Regulators who approve hospital budgets are often described as setting prices. In practice they are arbitrating a cross-subsidy, and the service lines at risk are predictable.

• Childcare capacity is a labour market problem wearing a subsidy costume

  Demand-side childcare subsidies raise what families can pay. They do not create a single additional seat if the binding constraint is staffing, and it usually is.