ASSESSMENT OF FUNCTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS OF THE LONG-TERM SOCIAL CARE INSTITUTIONS IN LATVIA’S MUNICIPALITIES BY THE DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS METHOD

• Authors: Edgars Shtals , Zhanna Tsaurkubule , Rita Konstante
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Social protection is one of the most important functions of the state and local governments in relation to their citizens, especially to those who are in difficulty, affected by various diseases and the elderly ones. Municipalities in Latvia function at different economical levels that are determined by geopolitical, socio-economic, demographic, etc. factors that in turn affect the performance of various functions by local governments. One of these functions is the provision of long-term social care services to retired people. In circumstances, when local government finances are limited and the demographic structure is changing, characterized by an aging population, it is important to achieve the most effective use of financial resources in the longterm social care institutions (LSCIs). The functional effectiveness of the LSCIs in the context of the use of financial resources using science-based econometric methods has not been evaluated in Latvia by now, therefore the aim of the study is to determine the most effective LSCI as for criteria taking the indicators of financial and other available resources of the currently functioning local government LSCIs. Within the framework of this study, the authors, using data from the Ministry of Welfare of the Republic of Latvia on the LSCIs of the elderly, are evaluating the functional effectiveness of these institutions using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. After analysis of the functional effectiveness of 64 LSCIs by designing four DEA models, the authors identified the most effective LSCI - Ventspils Social Care Home “Selga” and Viļaka Social Care Center. The novelty of the research is the authors’ approach to assessing the functional effectiveness of the Latvian LSCIs using the DEA method, that allows to identify the most important parameters for the assessment of LSCIs functional effectiveness to ensure the stability of the social care field in Latvia.

Keywords

EN

municipalities,; long-term social care institutions (LSCIs); Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method,; functional effectiveness,; Latvia

• Publisher: Daugavpils University, Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Journal: Sociālo Zinātņu Vēstnesis
• Year: 2019
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 65-85

Contributors

author

Edgars Shtals

author

Zhanna Tsaurkubule

author

Rita Konstante

Identifiers

ISSN

1691-1881