Table 6 Estimation of cost functions with total score as an index of quality of services

Case 1:Cobb-Douglas Function	Case 2:Log-Quadratic Function	Case 3:Translog Function
Coeff.	t value	Coeff.	t value	Coeff.	t value
ln (Total utilization hours of physical nursing) -A	0.1305034 **	2.41	0.2744461	1.03	0.66822 ***	2.71
ln (Total utilization hours of physical nursing)^2	-0.0125307	-0.59	-0.0116364	-0.32
ln (Total utilization hours of house work assistance)-B	0.1983239 ***	4.14	-0.5021995 **	-2.46	-0.9009475 ***	-3.78
ln (Total utilization hours of house work assistance)^2	0.0531557 ***	3.31	0.0635149 **	2.38
ln (Total utilization hours of multiple services) -C	0.1692487	0.75	-0.0365682	-0.17
ln (Total utilization hours of multiple services)^2	0.1561639 ***	3.08	-0.0019616	-0.11	0.0171456	0.57
ln (A)^ln (B)	-0.0369205	-0.87
ln (B)^ln (C)	0.0482346	0.98
ln (C)^ln (A)	-0.038126	-0.78
ln (Wage)	0.5545788 ***	5.08	0.7015094 ***	5.54	0.6912696 ***	5.61
ln (Wage)^2	-0.0708236	-1.42	-0.0548236 ***	-4.21
ln (Rental cost)	0.0040995	0.14	-0.0074053	-0.15	0.3087304 **	2.5
ln (Rental cost)^2	-0.002955	-0.32	0.0247214 ***	2.65
ln (Wage)^ln (Rental cost)	0.0301022 *	1.88
ln (A)^ln (Wage)	0.1770874 ***	3.36
ln (B)^ln (Wage)	0.0086883	0.15
ln (C)^ln (Wage)	-0.1545696 **	-2.41
ln (A)^ln (Rental cost)	0.0364844	1.51
ln (B)^ln (Rental cost)	-0.0553451 **	-2.07
ln (C)^ln (Rental cost)	-0.0123455	-0.48
ln (quality of services)	0.2753913	1.23	0.3273649	1.47	0.3940938 *	1.75
length of operation	-0.001262 **	-2.07	-0.0011689 **	-2.37	-0.0010299 *	-1.67
dummy for branch office	0.0159358	0.11	0.0491589	0.37	0.0675421	0.55
dummy for special region 1	0.2996738	1.34	0.3223407	1.55	0.2537962	1.39
dummy for special region 2	0.0601059	0.48	0.0011281	0.01	0.0154946	0.11
dummy for special region 3	-0.0678484	-0.54	-0.0693386	-0.57	-0.0834696	-0.6
dummy for at-home assistance business	-0.0730759	-0.59	-0.0855523	-0.71	-0.1112894	-0.89
dummy for at-home bathing business	0.3931035 ***	3.03	0.4161889 ***	3.47	0.3969708 ***	2.94
dummy for day care business	-0.0675121	-0.58	-0.0398449	-0.34	-0.0380693	-0.3
dummy for sales and lending business of welfare equipments	0.173006	1.1	0.1045636	0.75	0.2415388	1.61
dummy for food delivery business	0.0463575	0.37	0.0703214	0.55	0.0732451	0.55
dummy for short-stay business	-0.6545475 **	-2.3	-0.651452 **	-2.18	-0.6153819 ***	-2.75
dummy for medical facilities	0.3371074	1.28	0.3346211	1.25	0.2893437	1.34
dummy for at home nursing and rehabilitation business	0.3416049 *	1.92	0.2909876	1.63	0.2858262	1.38
dummy for newer provider	-0.4061605 ***	-3.46	-0.4090204 ***	-3.5	-0.3547408 ***	-2.79
dummy for nonprofit provider	-0.0265734	-0.19	-0.0165092	-0.13	-0.0770982	-0.58
dummy for public provider	-0.2484345	-1.58	-0.2890197 *	-1.86	-0.3351975 **	-1.99
Constant	2.600399 ***	3.42	4.214837 ***	4.56	5.018539 ***	4.75
Observations	261	261	261
R²	0.6864	0.723	0.7625

Note:

1) The dependent variable is the logarithm of the total expenditure (lnC) of individual provider.

The explanatory variables include a nonprofit dummy (N=1 for nonprofit provider, N=0 otherwise), a public provider dummy (G=1 for public provider,

G=0 otherwise) and a new provider dummy (A=1 for newer provider, A=0 otherwise).

2) The specifications for these results are discussed in the main text.

3) ***means 1% significant level, ** means 5% significant level, * means 10% significant level.