An Investigation of the Impact of Health Expenditures on International Migration as a Pull Factor in OECD Countries Using a Panel Vector Autoregression (PVAR) Approach

International migration refers to the compulsory or voluntary movement of people from one country or region to another country or region for various reasons. In addition to being a demographic phenomenon, it is also a complex process that develops depending on the decision-making mechanisms of individuals. This study examines the relationship between health and migration from the perspective of the host country. Thus, this paper explores whether health expenditures influence immigrant populations in host countries. In addition to health expenditures, growth and urbanization, which may impact migration, are also included in the model, and the relationship between these factors in OECD countries is discussed for the period from 2000–2017 by using a panel vector autoregression (PVAR) approach. The results show that an increase in health expenditures increases the size of immigrant populations in OECD countries. This result confirms that health expenditures function as pull factors for migration in OECD countries. Additionally, the urbanization and economic growth coefficients were observed to be statistically insignificant. Moreover, the PVAR analysis also demonstrated that, in the long run, an increase in health expenditures contributes to economic growth in these countries. Therefore, health expenditures are considered a factor in the migration policies of both host and source countries because they are a determinant in migration decisions.