Dental Care Expenditures Research Articles

A Test of the Property-Rights Theory of the Firm: Water Utilities in the United States

CONTROVERSY over the relative efficiency of public versus private enterprise has a long history in economic thought. Many of the same issues that concerned Chadwick and Mill in their debates in the 1850s over nationalizing certain British industries and von Mises and Hayek versus Lange and Lerner in their well-known exchanges about the efficacy of a centrally planned economy continue to come up in the literature.1 In fact the modern property rights theory of the firm, postulated by theorists such as Alchian, Becker, and Demsetz follows in the tradition of von Mises and Hayek in stressing the impact on economic efficiency of alternative ownership forms. Special emphasis is placed on cost-reward arrangements within private and public enterprises in this approach to the theory of the firm. Where a direct connection between productivity and reward is severed, as in public enterprises, production will be less economically efficient. While this is a very appealing approach to firm behavior, it is yet to be subjected to a rigorous test with respect to firm costs. De Alessi purports to examine the implication of the property rights theory for managerial tenure.2

Expenditures for Dental Care Purchased by Dependents of Military Personnel

Expenditures for Dental Care Purchased by Dependents of Military Personnel

The Utilization of Dental Services

A community health survey in New York City finds dental care lagging far behind medical care in the ability to reach the low-income segment of the population. Unlike medical services, which reach all income groups in about equal proportions, the utilization of dental services is highly related to socioeconomic status. Dental care is also found to be lowest among Negroes and Puerto Ricans, regardless of socioeconomic status, with the frequency of dental care decreasing in direct proportion to an increase in the degree of parochialism or social isolation of the individual. Thus, it would appear that the same forces that lead to social deprivation in general also increase the likelihood of dental deprivation. The need to study the public's utilization of dental services is underscored by recent statistics on the state of dental health and the cost of dental care in the United States. Despite the fact that the Commission on the Survey of Dentistry in the United States concluded that nearly everyone suffers from some form of dental disease,1 a national survey disclosed that only about one-third of the population sees a dentist at least once during the year.2 According to the United States National Health Survey, during a one-year period (1958-1959), 60 per cent of the population reported no visits at all to a dentist. Furthermore, dental visits were unevenly distributed, with one-tenth of the population accounting for about two-thirds of all dental visits.3 These statistics on the underutilization of dental services are bolstered by data on private expenditures for dental care. In 1962, per capita spending for dentists' services was only $11.91, and this repre

Public, private and philanthropic expenditures for dental care in New York City.

The experience of New York City could be of use in planning new dental programs in other large segments of population.

The impact of prepayment on the economics of dental care

It is anticipated that, during the next few years, there will be a sudden and substantial expansion in the extent of insurance of prepayment coverage against the expenses of dental care. Speculations are offered as to the effect such an expansion will have on expenditures for dental care, dentists’ incomes and fees, supply and distribution of dentists, and use of services.

The Career and Postgraduate Training Interests of Senior Dental Students / List of Certified Dental Materials / Personal Expenditures for Dental Care, and Price Indexes for Dentists’ Fees, 1949–1952 / The American Dental Association Film Library

The Career and Postgraduate Training Interests of Senior Dental Students / List of Certified Dental Materials / Personal Expenditures for Dental Care, and Price Indexes for Dentists’ Fees, 1949–1952 / The American Dental Association Film Library