IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/soecon/v71y2005i4p768-783.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Determinants of Life Expectancy: An Analysis of the OECD Health Data

Author

Listed:
  • James W. Shaw
  • William C. Horrace
  • Ronald J. Vogel

Abstract

This study considers an aggregate life expectancy production function for a sample of developed countries. We find that pharmaceutical consumption has a positive effect on life expectancy at middle and advanced ages but is sensitive to the age distribution of a given country. Thus, ignoring age distribution in a regression of life expectancy on pharmaceutical consumption creates an omitted‐variable bias in the pharmaceutical coefficient. We find that doubling annual pharmaceutical expenditures adds about one year of life expectancy for males at age 40 and slightly less than a year of life expectancy for females at age 65. We also present results for lifestyle inputs into the production of life expectancy. For example, decreasing tobacco consumption by about two cigarettes per day or increasing fruit and vegetable consumption by 30% (one‐third pound per day) increases life expectancy approximately one year for 40‐year‐old females.

Suggested Citation

  • James W. Shaw & William C. Horrace & Ronald J. Vogel, 2005. "The Determinants of Life Expectancy: An Analysis of the OECD Health Data," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 71(4), pages 768-783, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:71:y:2005:i:4:p:768-783
    DOI: 10.1002/j.2325-8012.2005.tb00675.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2325-8012.2005.tb00675.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/j.2325-8012.2005.tb00675.x?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. Wolfe, Barbara & Gabay, Mary, 1987. "Health status and medical expenditures: More evidence of a link," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 25(8), pages 883-888, January.
    2. Patricia M. Danzon & Jonathan D. Ketcham, 2004. "Reference Pricing of Pharmaceuticals for Medicare: Evidence from Germany, the Netherlands, and New Zealand," NBER Chapters, in: Frontiers in Health Policy Research, Volume 7, pages 1-54, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Gradstein, Mark & Kaganovich, Michael, 2004. "Aging population and education finance," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(12), pages 2469-2485, December.
    4. T. S. Breusch & A. R. Pagan, 1980. "The Lagrange Multiplier Test and its Applications to Model Specification in Econometrics," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 47(1), pages 239-253.
    5. Hausman, Jerry, 2015. "Specification tests in econometrics," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 38(2), pages 112-134.
    6. Szuba, Tadeusz J., 1986. "International comparison of drug consumption: Impact of prices," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 22(10), pages 1019-1025, January.
    7. Frank R. Lichtenberg, 1996. "The Effect of Pharmaceutical Utilization and Innovation on Hospitalization and Mortality," NBER Working Papers 5418, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Richard Auster & Irving Leveson & Deborah Sarachek, 1969. "The Production of Health, an Exploratory Study," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 4(4), pages 411-436.
    9. Zhang, Junsen & Zhang, Jie & Lee, Ronald, 2001. "Mortality decline and long-run economic growth," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 485-507, June.
    10. Frank R. Lichtenberg, 1998. "Pharmaceutical Innovation, Mortality Reduction, and Economic Growth," NBER Working Papers 6569, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Coile, Courtney & Diamond, Peter & Gruber, Jonathan & Jousten, Alain, 2002. "Delays in claiming social security benefits," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(3), pages 357-385, June.
    12. Wolfe, Barbara L., 1986. "Health status and medical expenditures: Is there a link?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 22(10), pages 993-999, January.
    13. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    14. Cremer, Helmuth & Lozachmeur, Jean-Marie & Pestieau, Pierre, 2004. "Social security, retirement age and optimal income taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(11), pages 2259-2281, September.
    15. MacKinnon, James G. & White, Halbert, 1985. "Some heteroskedasticity-consistent covariance matrix estimators with improved finite sample properties," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 305-325, September.
    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. Pedro Antonio Martín Cervantes & Nuria Rueda López & Salvador Cruz Rambaud, 2019. "A Causal Analysis of Life Expectancy at Birth. Evidence from Spain," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-14, July.
    2. Zhiheng Chen & Yuting Ma & Junyi Hua & Yuanhong Wang & Hongpeng Guo, 2021. "Impacts from Economic Development and Environmental Factors on Life Expectancy: A Comparative Study Based on Data from Both Developed and Developing Countries from 2004 to 2016," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-18, August.
    3. Al-Shboul, Mohammad & Al Rawashdeh, Rami, 2022. "The impact of institutional quality and resources rent on health: The case of GCC," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    4. Peter Akioyamen & Mehmet A. Begen, 2023. "A Spatio-Temporal Analysis of OECD Member Countries’ Health Care Systems: Effects of Data Missingness and Geographically and Temporally Weighted Regression on Inference," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(13), pages 1-18, June.
    5. Paolo Roffia & Alessandro Bucciol & Sara Hashlamoun, 2023. "Determinants of life expectancy at birth: a longitudinal study on OECD countries," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 189-212, June.
    6. Pedro Antonio Martín Cervantes & Nuria Rueda López & Salvador Cruz Rambaud, 2020. "The Relative Importance of Globalization and Public Expenditure on Life Expectancy in Europe: An Approach Based on MARS Methodology," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-20, November.

    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. James W. Shaw & William C. Horrace & Ronald J. Vogel, 2002. "The Productivity of Pharmaceuticals in Improving Health: An Analysis of the OECD Health Data," HEW 0206001, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 11 May 2003.
    2. MacKinnon, James G, 1992. "Model Specification Tests and Artificial Regressions," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 30(1), pages 102-146, March.
    3. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Yannis Psycharis & Vassilis Tselios, 2012. "Public investment and regional growth and convergence: Evidence from Greece," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 91(3), pages 543-568, August.
    4. González, Maximiliano & Guzmán, Alexander & Pombo, Carlos & Trujillo, María Andréa, 2012. "Family involvement and dividend policy in listed and non-listed firms," Galeras. Working Papers Series 034, Universidad de Los Andes. Facultad de Administración. School of Management.
    5. Krishna Dayal Pandey & Tarak Nath Sahu, 2019. "Debt Financing, Agency Cost and Firm Performance: Evidence from India," Vision, , vol. 23(3), pages 267-274, September.
    6. Russell Davidson & Victoria Zinde‐Walsh, 2017. "Advances in specification testing," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(5), pages 1595-1631, December.
    7. Gianko Michailidis & Concepció Patxot & Meritxell Solé, 2019. "Do pensions foster education? An empirical perspective," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(38), pages 4127-4150, August.
    8. Yana Akhtyrska & Franz Fuerst, 2021. "People or Systems: Does Productivity Enhancement Matter More than Energy Management in LEED Certified Buildings?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-35, December.
    9. Hellman, Joel S. & Jones, Geraint & Kaufmann, Daniel, 2003. "Seize the state, seize the day: state capture and influence in transition economies," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 751-773, December.
    10. Pulak Mishra, 2018. "Are Mergers and Acquisitions Necessarily Anti-competitive? Empirical Evidence from India’s Manufacturing Sector," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 12(3), pages 276-307, August.
    11. Allini, Alessandra & Rakha, Soliman & McMillan, David G. & Caldarelli, Adele, 2018. "Pecking order and market timing theory in emerging markets: The case of Egyptian firms," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 297-308.
    12. Adrian C. Darnell, 1994. "A Dictionary Of Econometrics," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 118.
    13. Neil Karunaratne, 1997. "High-Tech Innovation, Growth and Trade Dynamics in Australia," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 151-170, April.
    14. José Murteira & Esmeralda Ramalho & Joaquim Ramalho, 2013. "Heteroskedasticity testing through a comparison of Wald statistics," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 12(2), pages 131-160, August.
    15. Mark Berger & Jodi Messer, 2002. "Public financing of health expenditures, insurance, and health outcomes," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(17), pages 2105-2113.
    16. Andrés Rodríguez‐Pose & Vassilis Tselios, 2009. "Education And Income Inequality In The Regions Of The European Union," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(3), pages 411-437, August.
    17. Krishna Dayal Pandey & Tarak Nath Sahu, 2019. "Concentrated Promoters’ Ownership and Firm Value: Re-examining the Monitoring and Expropriation Hypothesis," Paradigm, , vol. 23(1), pages 70-82, June.
    18. repec:jss:jstsof:27:i02 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. MacKinnon, James G. & Nielsen, Morten Ørregaard & Webb, Matthew D., 2023. "Testing for the appropriate level of clustering in linear regression models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 235(2), pages 2027-2056.
    20. Thomas, Duncan & Lavy, Victor & Strauss, John, 1996. "Public policy and anthropometric outcomes in the Cote d'Ivoire," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 155-192, August.
    21. Jr-Tsung Huang & An-Pang Kao & Wen-Chuan Hung, 2006. "The Influence of College Tuition and Fees on Fertility Rate in Taiwan," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 626-642, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:wly:soecon:v:71:y:2005:i:4:p:768-783. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)2325-8012 .

    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.