Reassessing the impact of health expenditure on income growth in the face of the global sanitary crisis: the case of developing countries

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, developing countries are increasing health spending to save lives. Such a response raises questions about the economic impact of this expenditure in terms of income growth that determines the development trajectory of these countries. This paper is the first to apply dynamic linear and threshold panel data models to capture the dynamic impact of health expenditure on growth on a large sample of developing countries, while addressing endogeneity bias and taking into account different levels of human and physical capital, as well as a set of health expenditure indicators. The main results show that while public and private domestic health expenditure increase income growth, external inflows of health expenditure do not. In addition, this positive impact is enhanced by a higher level of human and physical capital, thereby demonstrating complementarity rather than substitutability between investments in health, physical and human capital.