Table 7 Estimation of cost functions with score of principle component as an index of quality of services

Case 4:Cobb-Douglas Function	Case 5:Log-Quadratic Function	Case 6:Translog Function
Coeff.	t value	Coeff.	t value	Coeff.	t value
ln (Total utilization hours of physical nursing) -A	0.1275019 **	2.36	0.2686886	1.01	0.6605247 ***	2.68
ln (Total utilization hours of physical nursing)^2	-0.0122833	-0.58	-0.0107632	-0.29
ln (Total utilization hours of house work assistance)-B	0.1978822 ***	4.13	-0.5023841 **	-2.46	-0.9009452 ***	-3.79
ln (Total utilization hours of house work assistance)^2	0.0531592 ***	3.31	0.0641564 **	2.41
ln (Total utilization hours of multiple services) -C	0.173963	0.77	-0.0346764	-0.16
ln (Total utilization hours of multiple services)^2	0.1568401 ***	3.1	-0.0022789	-0.13	0.0169764	0.56
ln (A) * ln (B)	-0.0376831	-0.89
ln (B) * ln (C)	0.0476921	0.97
ln (C) * ln (A)	-0.038155	-0.78
ln (Wage)	0.5558188 ***	5.1	0.7024069 ***	5.53	0.6860532 ***	5.57
ln (Wage)^2	-0.0705236	-1.41	-0.054563 ***	-4.2
ln (Rental cost)	0.0043481	0.15	-0.0076398	-0.16	0.3139468 **	2.55
ln (Rental cost)^2	-0.0031201	-0.34	0.0244657 ***	2.64
ln (Wage) * ln (Rental cost)	0.0300974 *	1.89
ln (A) * ln (Wage)	0.17575 ***	3.34
ln (B) * ln (Wage)	0.0092461	0.16
ln (C) * ln (Wage)	-0.1529655 **	-2.39
ln (A) * ln (Rental cost)	0.0367504	1.52
ln (B) * ln (Rental cost)	-0.0552806 **	-2.07
ln (C) * ln (Rental cost)	-0.0135004	-0.53
ln (quality of services)	0.0867527	1.41	0.0971349	1.59	0.1179355 *	1.95
length of operation	-0.0012311 **	-2.02	-0.0011343 **	-2.31	-0.0009918	-1.61
dummy for branch office	0.0084562	0.06	0.0418671	0.31	0.0579804	0.47
dummy for special region 1	0.302108	1.35	0.3250649	1.56	0.2567267	1.41
dummy for special region 2	0.0624414	0.5	0.0037663	0.03	0.018069	0.13
dummy for special region 3	-0.0674057	-0.54	-0.0699043	-0.57	-0.0846296	-0.61
dummy for at-home assistance business	-0.0750864	-0.61	-0.0871299	-0.72	-0.1123821	-0.9
dummy for at-home bathing business	0.3859238 ***	2.99	0.4091056 ***	3.43	0.3890785 ***	2.88
dummy for day care business	-0.0757276	-0.66	-0.0483188	-0.41	-0.0478614	-0.38
dummy for sales and lending business of welfare equipm	0.1738388	1.1	0.1041877	0.75	0.2402685	1.6
dummy for food delivery business	0.0489182	0.4	0.0738902	0.58	0.0783803	0.59
dummy for short-stay business	-0.650488 **	-2.29	-0.6484111 **	-2.19	-0.6114909 ***	-2.74
dummy for medical facilities	0.3344278	1.28	0.3327976	1.25	0.2866871	1.33
dummy for at home nursing and rehabilitation business	0.3384129 *	1.93	0.2880061	1.63	0.2819074	1.37
dummy for newer provider	-0.4084706 ***	-3.49	-0.4111004 ***	-3.53	-0.359142 ***	-2.83
dummy for nonprofit provider	-0.0216574	-0.16	-0.0101705	-0.08	-0.0696265	-0.53
dummy for public provider	-0.2347359	-1.48	-0.2752851 *	-1.76	-0.320006 *	-1.9
Constant	3.531248 ***	9.88	5.310764 ***	8.24	6.364263 ***	7.32
Observations	261	261	261
R²	0.6872	0.724	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.