Page 248 - GHES-3-3

Global Health Economics and
Sustainability
Empirical resource allocation in healthcare

rank-size dependence curves shift, reflecting underlying does not account for other contributing factors, such as
trends in healthcare costs and resource allocation over the government policies and population health.
past three decades. This recursive effect suggests that initial The study applies its hypothesis to a broad dataset
dependencies can reliably predict future distribution covering multiple countries but does not examine the
patterns, although the empirical rank-size relationship unique effects of national healthcare policies on resource
consistently deviates from the Pareto distribution in double allocation. Some countries with distinct policy frameworks
logarithmic coordinates. The study defines this observed may deviate from the observed Pareto distribution, but
deviation as a modified Pareto law that incorporates the these deviations were not explicitly tested. Moreover, the
statistical weight of a country’s competitive status. study does not explain why certain countries deviate more
The law of distribution of competitors, taking into significantly from Pareto law than others, leaving room for
account the statistical weight of the competitor, can serve as further investigation into country-specific influences.
a fairly accurate method for predicting the dynamics of the There was also no sensitivity analysis conducted to assess
distribution of scarce resources (Jakovljevic et al., 2023). how changes in input data or methodological adjustments
The stability of the identified specification is evident in the might impact health resource allocation outcomes.
near-constant slope angles of rank-resource dependency
graphs over time, as determined by the parameter α This research estimated the allocation of healthcare
(Hamzah et al., 2024). This scale invariance reinforces resources at the national level. It did not analyze the factors
the cyclical nature of resource distribution, enhancing influencing the distribution pattern at the county level.
predictive accuracy and informing more effective strategies This limits its ability to inform policies addressing regional
for sustainable and integrated economic development disparities in healthcare distribution.
(Erdas et al., 2025). While these limitations prevent the study from fully
capturing the complexity of healthcare resource inequality,
4.1. Limitations of the study its findings provide valuable insights into the empirical
Like any empirical research, this study has certain allocation of resources based on the law of competitor
limitations. The study examines the empirical distribution distribution. Future research will aim to address these gaps
of healthcare resources but does not test whether and enhance the robustness of the analysis.
alternative statistical models, such as log-normal,
Weibull, or exponential distributions, provide a better 5. Conclusion
fit. Resources distribution methodologies vary widely, This study aimed to empirically examine the distribution of
and there is substantial literature on their advantages and healthcare resources across countries, determine the rank-
disadvantages (Caeiro & Norouzirad, 2024; Karountzos size relationship in resource distribution, and check whether
et al., 2024; Clementi, 2024). This study focused solely on the distribution follows the Pareto law – described by a direct
assessing compliance with the Pareto distribution. relationship between the probability of resource distribution
Further, the chosen empirical distribution model lacks and the statistical weight of an object in the sample. The
comprehensive testing of statistical significance testing, findings indicate that the identified rank-size dependencies
which limits the robustness of the findings. for specialized surgical workers, doctors, hospital beds, and
hospital beds per 100,000 population do not fully conform
The study analyzes resource distribution based on to the Pareto power distribution. However, the observed
indicators such as the number of specialist surgical deviations suggest that competition for these resources is not
workforce, physicians, hospital beds, and hospital beds entirely free, and the Pareto-based ranking of competitors
per 100,000 population. However, it does not assess the does not ensure sustainable development (Bigler et al., 2025).
correlation between these indicators and the actual quality
of healthcare services due to challenges in obtaining and This study found that when competition for healthcare
comparing quality-related data. resources increases among countries: (1) physicians are
distributed more unevenly around the world compared to
The analysis is based on historical data from 2006 their distribution in OECD countries; (2) the distribution
to 2022, which may not fully capture future trends and of surgical personnel shows greater unevenness compared
changes in economic policies. Therefore, the study does to other analyzed resources; and (3) the hospital beds per
not claim to confirm long-term trends in the distribution 100,000 population in the OECD countries are the most
of healthcare resources. evenly distributed compared to other analyzed resources.
While the study attributes resource distribution These conclusions are consistent with the results
inequality to competition based on statistical weights, it of previous research. “In general, there should be an

Volume 3 Issue 3 (2025) 240 https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.8283