Asymmetry in Cost Behavior in Brazilian Hospitals

Abstract: Objectives: Investigating if the proportion of fixed assets over total assets is positively associated with the asymmetric cost behavior of public and private hospitals in Brazil. Methods: In order to test the sticky cost phenomenon in a different sector of companies and industries, we used panel data regression to investigate the asymmetric cost behavior in Brazilian hospitals, analyzing the hospital cost behavior regarding the variation in revenues and verifying whether the proportion of fixed assets over total assets is positively associated with the asymmetric cost behavior. As a result, this research took the findings obtained by the models applied to data from the 101 hospitals comprising the sample, spread over the 2010–2019 period. The research was divided into four sections. The first section tested asymmetry for fixed assets over total assets for hospitals in general. The second section divided the sample into public and private hospitals. The third section analyzed the sample of conglomerates against a single hospital. Finally, the fourth section tested the asymmetry of the hospitals in the sample measured by the number of beds. Results: The evidence documented here partially confirms the results of literature on the existence of asymmetric cost behavior regarding variations in revenue. The H₁ hypothesis that the proportion of fixed assets over total assets is positively associated with the asymmetric cost behavior was confirmed, especially for private and small hospitals regarding fixed assets.