Management Accounting and Control in Health Care: An Economics Perspective

This chapter summarizes empirical archival accounting research in management accounting that is based on economic theory and uses health care settings. Three perspectives are investigated: (1) production cost economics, including cost structure, cost behavior, cost drivers, the design of cost allocation systems, and the appropriate level of cost aggregation; (2) agency theory, including incentives to bias information or shift costs, the relation between benchmark disclosure and cost containment, and issues pertaining to compensation contracts and performance evaluation; and (3) industrial economics, including the effects of competition and mergers on accounting systems and costs, and capital budgeting responses to regulation.