IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/hecrev/v7y2017i1d10.1186_s13561-017-0164-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Convergence and determinants of health expenditures in OECD countries

Author

Listed:
  • Son Hong Nghiem

    (Queensland University of Technology)

  • Luke Brian Connelly

    (The University of Queensland)

Abstract

This study examines the trend and determinants of health expenditures in OECD countries over the 1975-2004 period. Based on recent developments in the economic growth literature we propose and test the hypothesis that health care expenditures in countries of similar economic development level may converge. We hypothesise that the main drivers for growth in health care costs include: aging population, technological progress and health insurance. The results reveal no evidence that health expenditures among OECD countries converge. Nevertheless, there is evidence of convergence among three sub-groups of countries. We found that the main driver of health expenditure is technological progress. Our results also suggest that health care is a (national) necessity, not a luxury good as some other studies in this field have found.

Suggested Citation

  • Son Hong Nghiem & Luke Brian Connelly, 2017. "Convergence and determinants of health expenditures in OECD countries," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-11, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:hecrev:v:7:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1186_s13561-017-0164-4
    DOI: 10.1186/s13561-017-0164-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s13561-017-0164-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1186/s13561-017-0164-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter C. B. Phillips & Donggyu Sul, 2007. "Transition Modeling and Econometric Convergence Tests," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(6), pages 1771-1855, November.
    2. Gerdtham, Ulf-G. & Jonsson, Bengt, 2000. "International comparisons of health expenditure: Theory, data and econometric analysis," Handbook of Health Economics, in: A. J. Culyer & J. P. Newhouse (ed.), Handbook of Health Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 1, pages 11-53, Elsevier.
    3. Albert Okunade & Mustafa Karakus, 2001. "Unit root and cointegration tests: timeseries versus panel estimates for international health expenditure models," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(9), pages 1131-1137.
    4. Peter Willemé & Michel Dumont, 2016. "Machines that go ‘ping’: Medical Technology and Health Expenditures in OECD Countries," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(3), pages 387-388, March.
    5. John Nixon, "undated". "Convergence Analysis of Health Care Expenditure in the EU Countries Using Two Approaches," Discussion Papers 99/3, Department of Economics, University of York.
    6. Amitabh Chandra & Jonathan Skinner, 2012. "Technology Growth and Expenditure Growth in Health Care," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(3), pages 645-680, September.
    7. Mary Borg, 1989. "The Income-Fertility Relationship: Effect of the Net Price of a Child," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 26(2), pages 301-310, May.
    8. Narayan, Seema & Narayan, Paresh Kumar & Mishra, Sagarika, 2010. "Investigating the relationship between health and economic growth: Empirical evidence from a panel of 5 Asian countries," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 404-411, August.
    9. Galor, Oded & Tsiddon, Daniel, 1997. "Technological Progress, Mobility, and Economic Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(3), pages 363-382, June.
    10. Pedro Pita Barros, 1998. "The black box of health care expenditure growth determinants," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 7(6), pages 533-544, September.
    11. Theo Hitiris & John Nixon, 2001. "Convergence of health care expenditure in the EU countries," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(4), pages 223-228.
    12. Carrion-i-Silvestre, Josep Lluis, 2005. "Health care expenditure and GDP: Are they broken stationary?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 839-854, September.
    13. Robert M. Solow, 1956. "A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 70(1), pages 65-94.
    14. Gerdtham, Ulf-G. & Lothgren, Mickael, 2000. "On stationarity and cointegration of international health expenditure and GDP," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 461-475, July.
    15. Gerdtham, Ulf-G. & Ruhm, Christopher J., 2006. "Deaths rise in good economic times: Evidence from the OECD," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 298-316, December.
    16. Clemente, Jesus & Marcuello, Carmen & Montanes, Antonio & Pueyo, Fernando, 2004. "On the international stability of health care expenditure functions: are government and private functions similar?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 589-613, May.
    17. Baltagi, Badi H. & Moscone, Francesco, 2010. "Health care expenditure and income in the OECD reconsidered: Evidence from panel data," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 804-811, July.
    18. Gerdtham, Ulf-G. & Sogaard, Jes & Andersson, Fredrik & Jonsson, Bengt, 1992. "An econometric analysis of health care expenditure: A cross-section study of the OECD countries," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 63-84, May.
    19. Patricia M. Danzon & Mark V. Pauly, 2002. "Health Insurance and the Growth in Pharmaceutical Expenditures," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 45(S2), pages 587-613.
    20. Parkin, David & McGuire, Alistair & Yule, Brian, 1987. "Aggregate health care expenditures and national income : Is health care a luxury good?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 109-127, June.
    21. Ekaterini Panopoulou & Theologos Pantelidis, 2012. "Convergence in per capita health expenditures and health outcomes in the OECD countries," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(30), pages 3909-3920, October.
    22. Joseph P. Newhouse, 1992. "Medical Care Costs: How Much Welfare Loss?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 6(3), pages 3-21, Summer.
    23. Newey, Whitney & West, Kenneth, 2014. "A simple, positive semi-definite, heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation consistent covariance matrix," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 33(1), pages 125-132.
    24. Seher Sülkü & Asena Caner, 2011. "Health care expenditures and gross domestic product: the Turkish case," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 12(1), pages 29-38, February.
    25. Van de Poel, Ellen & O'Donnell, Owen & Van Doorslaer, Eddy, 2009. "Urbanization and the spread of diseases of affluence in China," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 200-216, July.
    26. M. Hashem Pesaran, 2021. "General diagnostic tests for cross-sectional dependence in panels," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(1), pages 13-50, January.
    27. Jennifer Roberts, 1999. "Sensitivity of elasticity estimates for OECD health care spending: analysis of a dynamic heterogeneous data field," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 8(5), pages 459-472, August.
    28. Okunade, Albert A. & Murthy, Vasudeva N. R., 2002. "Technology as a 'major driver' of health care costs: a cointegration analysis of the Newhouse conjecture," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 147-159, January.
    29. Grossman, Michael, 1972. "On the Concept of Health Capital and the Demand for Health," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(2), pages 223-255, March-Apr.
    30. David M. Cutler & Dan P. Ly, 2011. "The (Paper)Work of Medicine: Understanding International Medical Costs," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(2), pages 3-25, Spring.
    31. Gupta, Sanjeev & Verhoeven, Marijn & Tiongson, Erwin R., 2002. "The effectiveness of government spending on education and health care in developing and transition economies," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 717-737, November.
    32. Dowrick, Steve & Nguyen, Duc-Tho, 1989. "OECD Comparative Economic Growth 1950-85: Catch-Up and Convergence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(5), pages 1010-1030, December.
    33. Baumol, William J, 1986. "Productivity Growth, Convergence, and Welfare: What the Long-run Data Show," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(5), pages 1072-1085, December.
    34. Didem Pekkurnaz, 2015. "Convergence of Health Expenditure in OECD Countries: Evidence from a Nonlinear Asymmetric Heterogeneous Panel Unit Root Test," Journal of Reviews on Global Economics, Lifescience Global, vol. 4, pages 76-86.
    35. Im, Kyung So & Pesaran, M. Hashem & Shin, Yongcheol, 2003. "Testing for unit roots in heterogeneous panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 53-74, July.
    36. Getzen, Thomas E., 2000. "Health care is an individual necessity and a national luxury: applying multilevel decision models to the analysis of health care expenditures," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 259-270, March.
    37. Cutler, David M & McClellan, Mark & Newhouse, Joseph P, 1998. "What Has Increased Medical-Care Spending Bought?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(2), pages 132-136, May.
    38. Jorge Alcalde‐Unzu & Roberto Ezcurra & Pedro Pascual, 2009. "Cross‐country disparities in health‐care expenditure: a factor decomposition," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(4), pages 479-485, April.
    39. Theo Hitiris, 1997. "Health care expenditure and integration in the countries of the European Union," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(1), pages 1-6.
    40. Chi Lau & Ka Fung & Lee Pugalis, 2014. "Is health care expenditure across Europe converging? Findings from the application of a nonlinear panel unit root test," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 4(2), pages 137-156, December.
    41. Bates, Laurie J. & Santerre, Rexford E., 2013. "Does the U.S. health care sector suffer from Baumol's cost disease? Evidence from the 50 states," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 386-391.
    42. Paul M. Romer, 1994. "The Origins of Endogenous Growth," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 3-22, Winter.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Junming Li & Xiulan Han, 2022. "Spatiotemporal Evolution and Drivers of Total Health Expenditure across Mainland China in Recent Years," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-19, December.
    2. Edouard Ribes, 2022. "Financial planning & optimal retirement timing for physically intensive occupations," Working Papers hal-03219182, HAL.
    3. Engy Raouf, 2023. "Green Hydrogen Production and Public Health Expenditure in Hydrogen-Exporting Countries," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 13(6), pages 36-44, November.
    4. Raymond Elikplim Kofinti & Josephine Baako-Amponsah & Prince Danso, 2023. "Household National Health Insurance Subscription and Learning Outcomes of Poor Children in Ghana," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 16(1), pages 357-394, February.
    5. Joana Cima & Alvaro S Almeida, 2018. "Health Expenditure, GDP Growth and the Financial Crisis: A Panel Data Analysis for OECD European Countries," FEP Working Papers 602, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    6. Roberto Moro-Visconti, 2021. "Networking Digital Platforms and Healthcare Project Finance Bankability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-18, April.
    7. Saadet Kasman & Adnan Kasman, 2021. "Convergence in obesity and overweight rates across OECD countries: evidence from the stochastic and club convergence tests," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 1063-1096, August.
    8. Jesús Clemente & Angelina Lázaro-Alquézar & Antonio Montañés, 2020. "Does the Great Recession Contribute to the Convergence of Health Care Expenditures in the US States?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-7, January.
    9. Kosycarz, Ewa & Dędys, Monika & Ekes, Maria & Wranik, Wiesława Dominika, 2023. "The effects of provider contract types and fiscal decentralization on the efficiency of the Polish hospital sector: A data envelopment analysis across 16 health regions," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    10. Mustafa Zuhal, 2023. "Technological Convergence in Emerging Economies: An Investigation with Unit Root Tests," Journal of Economic Policy Researches, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 10(2), pages 567-586, July.
    11. Elisabet Rodriguez Llorian & Janelle Mann, 2022. "Exploring the technology–healthcare expenditure nexus: a panel error correction approach," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 62(6), pages 3061-3086, June.
    12. Roberto Moro Visconti & Donato Morea, 2020. "Healthcare Digitalization and Pay-For-Performance Incentives in Smart Hospital Project Financing," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-25, March.
    13. Mustafa Ozer & Veysel Inal & Mustafa Kirca, 0. "The Relationship Between the Health Services Price Index and The Real Effective Exchange Rate Index in Turkey: A Frequency Domain Causality Analysis," EKOIST Journal of Econometrics and Statistics, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 0(36), pages 21-41, June.
    14. Romanus Osabohien & Amar Hisham Jaaffar & Armand Fréjuis Akpa & Mihajlo Jakovljevic, 2024. "Mobile money, medical cost anxiety and welfare of individuals within the reproductive age in Malaysia," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, December.
    15. Kris Ivanovski & Sefa Awaworyi Churchill, 2021. "Has healthcare expenditure converged across Australian states and territories?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(6), pages 3401-3417, December.
    16. Gülsüm AKARSU & Reyhan CAFRI & Hanife BIDIRDI, 2019. "Are Public-Private Components of Health Care Expenditures Converging Among OECD Countries? Evidence from a Nonlinear Panel Unit Root TestAbstract: Many countries devote an increasing proportion of the," Sosyoekonomi Journal, Sosyoekonomi Society.
    17. Claudiu Tiberiu Albulescu, 2022. "Health Care Expenditure in the European Union Countries: New Insights about the Convergence Process," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-16, February.
    18. Edouard A. Ribes, 2022. "Financial planning and optimal retirement timing for physically intensive occupations," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 2(8), pages 1-28, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Muhammad Arshad Khan & Muhammad Iftikhar Ul Husnain, 2019. "Is health care a luxury or necessity good? Evidence from Asian countries," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 213-233, June.
    2. Felipa de Mello-Sampayo & Sofia de Sousa-Vale, 2014. "Financing Health Care Expenditure in the OECD Countries: Evidence from a Heterogeneous, Cross-Sectional Dependent Panel," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 61(2), pages 207-225, March.
    3. Felipa de Mello-Sampayo & Sofia de Sousa-Vale, 2014. "Financing Health Care Expenditure in the OECD Countries: Evidence from a Heterogeneous, Cross-Sectional Dependent Panel," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 61(2), pages 207-225.
    4. Badi H. Baltagi & Raffaele Lagravinese & Francesco Moscone & Elisa Tosetti, 2017. "Health Care Expenditure and Income: A Global Perspective," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(7), pages 863-874, July.
    5. Joan Costa-Font & Marin Gemmill & Gloria Rubert, 2008. "Re-visiting the Health Care Luxury Good Hypothesis: Aggregation, Precision, and Publication Biases?," Working Papers in Economics 197, Universitat de Barcelona. Espai de Recerca en Economia.
    6. Clemente, Jesús & Lázaro-Alquézar, Angelina & Montañés, Antonio, 2019. "US state health expenditure convergence: A revisited analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 210-220.
    7. Tomasz Rokicki & Aleksandra Perkowska & Marcin Ratajczak, 2020. "Differentiation in Healthcare Financing in EU Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-17, December.
    8. Hartwig, Jochen, 2008. "What drives health care expenditure?--Baumol's model of 'unbalanced growth' revisited," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 603-623, May.
    9. Carla Blazquez-Fernandez & David Cantarero & Patricio Perez, 2014. "Disentangling the heterogeneous income elasticity and dynamics of health expenditure," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(16), pages 1839-1854, June.
    10. Paresh Kumar Narayan, 2007. "Do health expenditures 'catch-up'? Evidence from OECD countries," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(10), pages 993-1008.
    11. Niklas Potrafke, 2012. "Political cycles and economic performance in OECD countries: empirical evidence from 1951–2006," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 155-179, January.
    12. Moheddine Younsi & Mohamed Chakroun & Amine Nafla, 2016. "Robust analysis of the determinants of healthcare expenditure growth: evidence from panel data for low-, middle- and high-income countries," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 580-601, October.
    13. Isabel Casas & Jiti Gao & Bin Peng & Shangyu Xie, 2021. "Time‐varying income elasticities of healthcare expenditure for the OECD and Eurozone," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(3), pages 328-345, April.
    14. Potrafke, Niklas, 2010. "The growth of public health expenditures in OECD countries: Do government ideology and electoral motives matter?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 797-810, December.
    15. Vitor Castro, 2017. "Pure, White and Deadly… Expensive: A Bitter Sweetness in Health Care Expenditure," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(12), pages 1644-1666, December.
    16. Nicholas Apergis & Tsangyao Chang & Christina Christou & Rangan Gupta, 2017. "Convergence of Health Care Expenditures Across the US States: A Reconsideration," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 133(1), pages 303-316, August.
    17. Joan Costa‐Font & Jordi Pons‐Novell, 2007. "Public health expenditure and spatial interactions in a decentralized national health system," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(3), pages 291-306, March.
    18. Héctor Bellido & Lorena Olmos & Juan Antonio Román-Aso, 2019. "Do political factors influence public health expenditures? Evidence pre- and post-great recession," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 20(3), pages 455-474, April.
    19. Gülsüm AKARSU & Reyhan CAFRI & Hanife BIDIRDI, 2019. "Are Public-Private Components of Health Care Expenditures Converging Among OECD Countries? Evidence from a Nonlinear Panel Unit Root TestAbstract: Many countries devote an increasing proportion of the," Sosyoekonomi Journal, Sosyoekonomi Society.
    20. Di Matteo, Livio, 2005. "The macro determinants of health expenditure in the United States and Canada: assessing the impact of income, age distribution and time," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 23-42, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:hecrev:v:7:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1186_s13561-017-0164-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/13561 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.