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Health Expenditures and Global Inequalities in Longevity

Author

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  • Obrizan, Maksym
  • Wehby, George L.

Abstract

Longevity is a key health and development indicator used for cross-country comparisons. Evidence on the effects of country health expenditures on longevity is mixed. We evaluate the heterogeneity in country health expenditure effects throughout the life expectancy distribution worldwide during 2006–11 using quantile regression and an assembled dataset on 175 countries that includes both historic as well as recent data on life expectancy. Our goal is to evaluate the effects of health expenditures across quantiles of the country-level life expectancy distribution to understand whether increasing expenditures are associated with changes in longevity disparities between countries. We find significant heterogeneity in expenditure effects on life expectancy. The largest returns from increased spending are at the left margin of the life expectancy distribution. The results suggest that increasing health spending in countries with low life expectancy may have important returns to life expectancy and significantly diminish global inequalities in longevity and development by reducing the spread of the world’s life expectancy distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Obrizan, Maksym & Wehby, George L., 2018. "Health Expenditures and Global Inequalities in Longevity," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 28-36.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:101:y:2018:i:c:p:28-36
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.08.003
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Robert Stefko & Beata Gavurova & Viera Ivankova & Martin Rigelsky, 2020. "Gender Inequalities in Health and Their Effect on the Economic Prosperity Represented by the GDP of Selected Developed Countries—Empirical Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-26, May.
    2. Nguimkeu, Pierre & Tadadjeu, Sosson, 2021. "Why is the number of COVID-19 cases lower than expected in Sub-Saharan Africa? A cross-sectional analysis of the role of demographic and geographic factors," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    3. Deepak Kumar Behera & Umakant Dash, 2020. "Is health expenditure effective for achieving healthcare goals? Empirical evidence from South-East Asia Region," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 593-618, June.
    4. Ionel Muntele & Marinela Istrate & Alexandru Bănică & Raluca-Ioana Horea-Șerban, 2020. "Trends in Life Expectancy in Romania between 1990 and 2018. A Territorial Analysis of Its Determinants," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-17, May.
    5. Ethem Esen & Merve Çelik Keçili, 2022. "Economic Growth and Health Expenditure Analysis for Turkey: Evidence from Time Series," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(3), pages 1786-1800, September.
    6. Byaro, Mwoya & Mayaya, Hozen & Pelizzo, Riccardo, 2022. "Sustainable Development Goals for Sub-Saharan Africans' by 2030: A Pathway to Longer Life Expectancy via Higher Health-Care Spending and Low Disease Burdens," African Journal of Economic Review, African Journal of Economic Review, vol. 10(2), March.
    7. Păunică Mihai & Manole Alexandru & Motofei Cătălina & Tănase Gabriela-Lidia, 2019. "An overview on the correlation between the economic status of a country and the population’s health indicators," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 13(1), pages 1058-1069, May.
    8. Obrizan, Maksym, 2019. "Diverging trends in health care use between 2010 and 2016: Evidence from three groups of transition countries," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 19-29.
    9. Lopreite, Milena & Zhu, Zhen, 2020. "The effects of ageing population on health expenditure and economic growth in China: A Bayesian-VAR approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    10. Viera Ivanková & Rastislav Kotulič & Jaroslav Gonos & Martin Rigelský, 2019. "Health Care Financing Systems and Their Effectiveness: An Empirical Study of OECD Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-22, October.
    11. Barlow, Pepita, 2020. "Global disparities in health-systems financing: A cross-national analysis of the impact of tariff reductions and state capacity on public health expenditure in 65 low- and middle-income countries, 199," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 104107, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Mihai PĂUNICĂ & Alexandru MANOLE & Cătălina MOTOFEI & Gabriela - Lidia TĂNASE, 2020. "Life Expectancy from the Perspective of Global and Individual Wealth and Expenditures: A Granger Causality Study of Some Eu Countries," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(4), pages 170-184, December.
    13. Hilaire Gbodja Houeninvo, 2022. "Effects of health expenditures on infant and child mortality rates: A dynamic panel data analysis of 37 African countries," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 34(2), pages 255-267, June.

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