IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/qualqt/v50y2016i2p937-953.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Health and economic growth in high-income countries revisited: evidence from an augmented production function for the period 1980–2009

Author

Listed:
  • Alper Aslan
  • Angeliki Menegaki
  • Can Tugcu

Abstract

This paper uses time series data for seven industrialized countries from 1980–2009 to explore the causality between health care expenditure (HCE) and economic growth. We have set up a classical Cobb–Douglas production function including HCE, labor, capital, and an augmented function additionally including the number of patent applications (as a proxy for technology and research) and the total number of tertiary education students (as a proxy for education). Our results show that there is a long-run relationship between growth and HCE. As regards causality, in the classical production function, evidence for mutual causality between GDP and HCE is noted only in France, Germany and England, causality from HCE to GDP is noted in Italy and Japan, while no causality whatsoever is evidenced in Canada and USA. However, a completely different situation is unveiled when the augmented production function is used with mutual causality being noted in all perused variables. The novelty of our study lies first in that it contributes to the health-growth nexus literature for high-income countries which has been quite controversial and second it sets off new variables whose omission might be one of the reasons of the result dichotomy. Results of this study will be very useful for high-income countries currently afflicted by the economic crisis and embark on HCE curtailments or revisions. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016

Suggested Citation

  • Alper Aslan & Angeliki Menegaki & Can Tugcu, 2016. "Health and economic growth in high-income countries revisited: evidence from an augmented production function for the period 1980–2009," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 937-953, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:qualqt:v:50:y:2016:i:2:p:937-953
    DOI: 10.1007/s11135-015-0184-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11135-015-0184-2
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11135-015-0184-2?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. Romer, Paul M, 1986. "Increasing Returns and Long-run Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(5), pages 1002-1037, October.
    2. John Strauss & Duncan Thomas, 1998. "Health, Nutrition, and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(2), pages 766-817, June.
    3. Gong, Liutang & Li, Hongyi & Wang, Dihai, 2012. "Health investment, physical capital accumulation, and economic growth," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 1104-1119.
    4. Rivera, Berta & Currais, Luis, 2004. "Public Health Capital and Productivity in the Spanish Regions: A Dynamic Panel Data Model," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 871-885, May.
    5. 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.
    6. Alok Bhargava & Dean T. Jamison & Lawrence J. Lau & Christopher J. L. Murray, 2006. "Modeling the effects of health on economic growth," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Econometrics, Statistics And Computational Approaches In Food And Health Sciences, chapter 20, pages 269-286, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    7. Robert M. Solow, 1956. "A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 70(1), pages 65-94.
    8. Don Webber, 2002. "Policies to stimulate growth: should we invest in health or education?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(13), pages 1633-1643.
    9. Shankha Chakraborty & Mausumi Das, 2005. "Mortality, Human Capital and Persistent Inequality," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 159-192, June.
    10. Cavalieri, Marina & Gitto, Lara & Guccio, Calogero, 2013. "Reimbursement systems and quality of hospital care: An empirical analysis for Italy," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(3), pages 273-289.
    11. Robert J. Barro, 1991. "Economic Growth in a Cross Section of Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(2), pages 407-443.
    12. M. Hashem Pesaran & Yongcheol Shin & Richard J. Smith, 2001. "Bounds testing approaches to the analysis of level relationships," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(3), pages 289-326.
    13. LI, Hongyi & HUANG, Liang, 2009. "Health, education, and economic growth in China: Empirical findings and implications," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 374-387, September.
    14. Mayer, David, 2001. "The Long-Term Impact of Health on Economic Growth in Latin America," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 1025-1033, June.
    15. 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.
    16. Law, Michael R. & Daw, Jamie R. & Cheng, Lucy & Morgan, Steven G., 2013. "Growth in private payments for health care by Canadian households," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(2), pages 141-146.
    17. 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.
    18. Bloom, David E. & Canning, David & Sevilla, Jaypee, 2004. "The Effect of Health on Economic Growth: A Production Function Approach," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 1-13, January.
    19. Abdulnasser Hatemi-J, 2012. "Asymmetric causality tests with an application," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 447-456, August.
    20. Arora, Suchit, 2001. "Health, Human Productivity, And Long-Term Economic Growth," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 61(3), pages 699-749, September.
    21. Wheeler, David, 1980. "Basic needs fulfillment and economic growth : A simultaneous model," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 435-451, December.
    22. Paresh Kumar Narayan, 2005. "The saving and investment nexus for China: evidence from cointegration tests," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(17), pages 1979-1990.
    23. N. Gregory Mankiw & David Romer & David N. Weil, 1992. "A Contribution to the Empirics of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(2), pages 407-437.
    24. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1988. "On the mechanics of economic development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 3-42, July.
    25. Toshihiro Ihori, Ryuta Ray Kato, Masumi Kawade, Shun-ichiro Bessho, 2011. "The Reform Of The Public Health Insurance And Economic Growth Of Japan," Asia Pacific Economic Papers 392, Australia-Japan Research Centre, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    26. Narayan, Paresh Kumar, 2006. "Examining structural breaks and growth rates in international health expenditures," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 877-890, September.
    27. Hartwig, Jochen, 2010. "Is health capital formation good for long-term economic growth? - Panel Granger-causality evidence for OECD countries," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 314-325, March.
    28. Bhargava, Alok, 1997. "Nutritional status and the allocation of time in Rwandese households," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 277-295, March.
    29. Ihori, Toshihiro & Kato, Ryuta Ray & Kawade, Masumi & Bessho, Shun-ichiro, 2011. "Health insurance reform and economic growth: Simulation analysis in Japan," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 227-239.
    30. Gerdtham, Ulf-G. & Jonsson, Bengt, 2000. "International comparisons of health expenditure: Theory, data and econometric analysis," Handbook of Health Economics, in: A. J. Culyer & J. P. Newhouse (ed.), Handbook of Health Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 1, pages 11-53, Elsevier.
    31. Michael Grossman, 1972. "The Demand for Health: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number gros72-1, June.
    32. Beraldo, Sergio & Montolio, Daniel & Turati, Gilberto, 2009. "Healthy, educated and wealthy: A primer on the impact of public and private welfare expenditures on economic growth," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 946-956, December.
    33. Knowles, Stephen & Owen, P. Dorian, 1995. "Health capital and cross-country variation in income per capita in the Mankiw-Romer-Weil model," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 99-106, April.
    34. van Zon, Adriaan & Muysken, Joan, 2001. "Health and endogenous growth," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 169-185, March.
    35. Amiri, Arshia & Ventelou, Bruno, 2012. "Granger causality between total expenditure on health and GDP in OECD: Evidence from the Toda–Yamamoto approach," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 116(3), pages 541-544.
    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. Michael Takudzwa Pasara & Tapiwa Kelvin Mutambirwa & Nolutho Diko, 2020. "The Trivariate Causality among Education, Health, and Economic Growth in Zimbabwe," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-15, February.

    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. Nadide Halıcı-Tülüce & İbrahim Doğan & Cüneyt Dumrul, 2016. "Is income relevant for health expenditure and economic growth nexus?," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 23-49, March.
    2. Dinda, Soumyananda, 2016. "Interrelationships between Social and human Capital, and Economic Growth," MPRA Paper 89646, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2017.
    3. Narayan, Seema & Narayan, Paresh Kumar & Mishra, Sagarika, 2010. "Investigating the relationship between health and economic growth: Empirical evidence from a panel of 5 Asian countries," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 404-411, August.
    4. MESSAILI, Moussa & KAID TLILANE, Nouara, 2018. "Essai d’évaluation de la contribution de la santé à la croissance économique en Algérie [An assessment of the contribution of health to economic growth in Algeria]," MPRA Paper 88013, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 18 Jul 2018.
    5. Ronald Kumar & Madhukar Singh, 2014. "Role of health expenditure and ICT in a small island economy: a study of Fiji," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 2295-2311, July.
    6. Boachie, Micheal Kofi, 2015. "Effect of health on economic growth in Ghana:An application of ARDL bounds test to cointegration," MPRA Paper 67201, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Hartwig, Jochen, 2010. "Is health capital formation good for long-term economic growth? - Panel Granger-causality evidence for OECD countries," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 314-325, March.
    8. Sami Chaabouni & Mounir Ben Mbarek, 2024. "What Will Be the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Human Capital and Economic Growth? Evidence from Eurozone," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(1), pages 2482-2498, March.
    9. Gong, Liutang & Li, Hongyi & Wang, Dihai, 2012. "Health investment, physical capital accumulation, and economic growth," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 1104-1119.
    10. Nicholas Apergis & Puja Padhi, 2013. "Health expenses and economic growth: convergence dynamics across the Indian States," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 261-277, December.
    11. Oliver Fritz & Peter Mayerhofer & Reinhard Haller & Gerhard Streicher & Florian Bachner & Herwig Ostermann, 2013. "Die regionalwirtschaftlichen Effekte der österreichischen Krankenanstalten," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 46672.
    12. Hafiz Muhammad Abubakar Siddique & Ghulam Mohey-ud-din & Adiqa Kiani, 2018. "Health, Education and Economic Growth Nexus: Evidence from Middle Income Countries," Global Social Sciences Review, Humanity Only, vol. 3(4), pages 68-86, December.
    13. Hüseyin Sen & Ayse Kaya & Baris Alpaslan, 2015. "Education, Health, and Economic Growth Nexus: A Bootstrap Panel Granger Causality Analysis for Developing Countries," Economics Discussion Paper Series 1502, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    14. Syeda Anam Fatima Rizvi, 2019. "Health Expenditures, Institutional Quality and Economic Growth," Post-Print hal-03341703, HAL.
    15. Hartwig, Jochen, 2012. "Testing the growth effects of structural change," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 11-24.
    16. Bernard Sarpong & Edward Nketiah-Amponsah & Nkechi S. Owoo, 2020. "Health and Economic Growth Nexus: Evidence from Selected Sub-Saharan African (SSA) Countries," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 21(2), pages 328-347, April.
    17. Isreal, Akingba Idowu Opeoluwa & Kaliappan, Shivee & Hamzah, Hanny Zurina, 2019. "Impact of Health Capital on Total Factor Productivity in Singapore," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 53(2), pages 83-98.
    18. Jochen Hartwig, 2008. "Has Health Capital Formation Cured 'Baumol's Disease'? - Panel Granger Causality Evidence for OECD Countries," KOF Working papers 08-206, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    19. Husain, Muhammad Jami, 2010. "Contribution of health to economic development: A survey and overview," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 4, pages 1-52.
    20. Dihai Wang & Heng-fu Zou, 2011. "The Fogel Approach to Health and Growth," CEMA Working Papers 520, China Economics and Management Academy, Central University of Finance and Economics.

    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:spr:qualqt:v:50:y:2016:i:2:p:937-953. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.