IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecmode/v32y2013icp124-129.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the relationship between GDP and health care expenditure: A new look

Author

Listed:
  • Lago-Peñas, Santiago
  • Cantarero-Prieto, David
  • Blázquez-Fernández, Carla

Abstract

In this paper we analyze the relationship between income and health expenditure in 31 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. We focus on the differences between short and long term elasticities and we also check the adjustment process of health care expenditure to changes in per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and its cyclical and trend components. In both cases, we test if results differ in countries with a higher share of private expenditure on total health expenditure. Econometric results show that the long-run income elasticity is close to unity, that health expenditure is more sensitive to per capita income cyclical movements than to trend movements, and that the adjustment to income changes in those countries with a higher share of private health expenditure over total expenditure is faster.

Suggested Citation

  • Lago-Peñas, Santiago & Cantarero-Prieto, David & Blázquez-Fernández, Carla, 2013. "On the relationship between GDP and health care expenditure: A new look," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 124-129.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:32:y:2013:i:c:p:124-129
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2013.01.021
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264999313000242
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econmod.2013.01.021?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anindya Sen, 2005. "Is Health Care a Luxury? New Evidence from OECD Data," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 147-164, June.
    2. 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.
    3. Catherine Bac & Yannick le Pen, 2002. "An International Comparison of Health Care Expenditure Determinants," 10th International Conference on Panel Data, Berlin, July 5-6, 2002 C5-1, International Conferences on Panel Data.
    4. David Prieto & Santiago Lago-Peñas, 2012. "Decomposing the determinants of health care expenditure: the case of Spain," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 13(1), pages 19-27, February.
    5. Hodrick, Robert J & Prescott, Edward C, 1997. "Postwar U.S. Business Cycles: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 29(1), pages 1-16, February.
    6. Bruno, Giovanni S.F., 2005. "Approximating the bias of the LSDV estimator for dynamic unbalanced panel data models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 87(3), pages 361-366, June.
    7. 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.
    8. David Cantarero & Santiago Lago-Penas, 2010. "The determinants of health care expenditure: a reexamination," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(7), pages 723-726.
    9. Dreger, C. & Reimers, H.E., 2005. "Health Care Expenditures in OECD Countries: A Panel Unit Root and Cointegration Analysis," International Journal of Applied Econometrics and Quantitative Studies, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 2(2), pages 5-20.
    10. 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.
    11. Nickell, Stephen J, 1981. "Biases in Dynamic Models with Fixed Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(6), pages 1417-1426, November.
    12. Dandan Liu & Rui Li & Zijun Wang, 2011. "Testing for structural breaks in panel varying coefficient models: with an application to OECD health expenditure," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 95-118, February.
    13. Joseph P. Newhouse, 1977. "Medical-Care Expenditure: A Cross-National Survey," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 12(1), pages 115-125.
    14. Beck, Nathaniel & Katz, Jonathan N., 1995. "What To Do (and Not to Do) with Time-Series Cross-Section Data," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 89(3), pages 634-647, September.
    15. Lee, Junsoo & Tieslau, Margie & Strazicich, Mark C. & Jewell, Todd, 2008. "Corrigendum to "Stationarity of health expenditures and GDP: Evidence from panel unit root tests with heterogeneous structural breaks" [J. Health Econ. 22 (2003) 313-323]," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 1141-1142, July.
    16. 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.
    17. Hitiris, Theo & Posnett, John, 1992. "The determinants and effects of health expenditure in developed countries," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 173-181, August.
    18. 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.
    19. Morten O. Ravn & Harald Uhlig, 2002. "On adjusting the Hodrick-Prescott filter for the frequency of observations," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(2), pages 371-375.
    20. 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.
    21. Levin, Andrew & Lin, Chien-Fu & James Chu, Chia-Shang, 2002. "Unit root tests in panel data: asymptotic and finite-sample properties," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 1-24, May.
    22. Kiviet, Jan F., 1995. "On bias, inconsistency, and efficiency of various estimators in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 53-78, July.
    23. Hansen, Paul & King, Alan, 1996. "The determinants of health care expenditure: A cointegration approach," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 127-137, February.
    24. Christian Hagist & Laurence J. Kotlikoff, 2009. "Who’s going broke? Comparing growth in Public healthcare expenditure in Ten OECD Countries," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 188(1), pages 55-72, March.
    25. Chakroun, Mohamed, 2009. "Health care expenditure and GDP: An international panel smooth transition approach," MPRA Paper 14322, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Y. Natalia Alfonso & Guiru Ding & David Bishai, 2016. "Income Elasticity of Vaccines Spending versus General Healthcare Spending," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(7), pages 860-872, July.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    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. Di Matteo, Livio & Cantarero-Prieto, David, 2018. "The Determinants of Public Health Expenditures: Comparing Canada and Spain," MPRA Paper 87800, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Giorgia Marini, 2016. "A note on the power of panel cointegration tests – An application to health care expenditure and gdp," Public Finance Research Papers 21, Istituto di Economia e Finanza, DSGE, Sapienza University of Rome.
    12. Nilgun Yavuz & Veli Yilanci & Zehra Ozturk, 2013. "Is health care a luxury or a necessity or both? Evidence from Turkey," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 14(1), pages 5-10, February.
    13. Moheddine Younsi & Marwa Bechtini & Mongi Lassoued, 2024. "The relationship between insurance development, population, economic growth, and health expenditures in OECD countries: a panel causality analysis," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 1-19, December.
    14. 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.
    15. 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.
    16. 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.
    17. Eugene Kouassi & Oluyele Akinkugbe & Noni Oratile Kutlo & J. M. Bosson Brou, 2018. "Health expenditure and growth dynamics in the SADC region: evidence from non-stationary panel data with cross section dependence and unobserved heterogeneity," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 47-66, March.
    18. Yan Feng & Toby Watt & Anita Charlesworth & Grace Marsden & Adam Roberts & Jon Sussex, 2017. "What Determines the Health Care Expenditure of High Income Countries? A Dynamic Estimation," Applied Economics and Finance, Redfame publishing, vol. 4(6), pages 1-16, November.
    19. Joan Costa‐Font & Marin Gemmill & Gloria Rubert, 2011. "Biases in the healthcare luxury good hypothesis?: a meta‐regression analysis," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 174(1), pages 95-107, January.
    20. Huarng, Kun-Huang & Yu, Tiffany Hui-Kuang, 2015. "Healthcare expenditure with causal recipes," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 1570-1573.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    GDP; Health care expenditure; OECD; Panel data; Income elasticity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health
    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

    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:eee:ecmode:v:32:y:2013:i:c:p:124-129. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30411 .

    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.