Costs mapped

Original title: Kosten in kaart.

Towards the end of the 1990s, the efficiency of public provisions - the relationship between output and costs - received an increasing amount of attention, mainly in response to the steep rise in costs. This publication focuses on the trend in the costs of public provisions: what are the background to the changes in those costs? The traditional approach, based on national cost figures, was refined for this purpose by incorporating more detailed information about institutions. This provides a clear insight into the factors which determine the trend in costs.
The analysis method developed is applied to figures for institutions for people with intellectual disabilities in the period 1984-1998. The major changes that have taken place in the sector mean that more recent figures are not available.
The costs in these institutions are found to increase primarily due to rising prices and output, as well as to a change in the content of the care provided. There has been virtually no change in efficiency, which has accordingly had no significant impact on the trend in costs.