TY - JOUR
T1 - Health care expenditure and environmental pollution
T2 - a cross-country comparison across different income groups
AU - Apergis, Nicholas
AU - Bhattacharya, Mita
AU - Hadhri, Walid
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - This paper investigates the long-run dynamics between health care expenditure and environmental pollution across four global income groups. The analysis uses data from 178 countries, spanning the period 1995–2017. Panel estimations are employed with unobserved heterogeneity, temporal persistence, and cross-sectional dependence using a model with common correlated effects. The findings document that the health care expenditure is a necessity for all sub-groups. We established that a 1% increase in national income increased health expenditure by 7.2% in the full sample, and 9.3%, 8.6%, 6.8% and 2.9% for low, low-middle, upper-middle and high-income groups, respectively, while a 1% increase in CO2 emissions increased health expenditure by 2.5% in the full sample, and 2.9%, 1.2%, 2.3% and 2.6% across these four income groups. We recommend that coordinated approach is needed in setting policy goals both in energy and health sectors in mitigating the negative effects of pollution. Our findings indicate that low-carbon emissions and energy efficient health care services will significantly reduce future health care expenses.
AB - This paper investigates the long-run dynamics between health care expenditure and environmental pollution across four global income groups. The analysis uses data from 178 countries, spanning the period 1995–2017. Panel estimations are employed with unobserved heterogeneity, temporal persistence, and cross-sectional dependence using a model with common correlated effects. The findings document that the health care expenditure is a necessity for all sub-groups. We established that a 1% increase in national income increased health expenditure by 7.2% in the full sample, and 9.3%, 8.6%, 6.8% and 2.9% for low, low-middle, upper-middle and high-income groups, respectively, while a 1% increase in CO2 emissions increased health expenditure by 2.5% in the full sample, and 2.9%, 1.2%, 2.3% and 2.6% across these four income groups. We recommend that coordinated approach is needed in setting policy goals both in energy and health sectors in mitigating the negative effects of pollution. Our findings indicate that low-carbon emissions and energy efficient health care services will significantly reduce future health care expenses.
KW - CO emissions
KW - Environmental pollution
KW - Health care expenditure
KW - Income groups
KW - Panel estimation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85077537340&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11356-019-07457-0
DO - 10.1007/s11356-019-07457-0
M3 - Article
C2 - 31897990
AN - SCOPUS:85077537340
SN - 0944-1344
VL - 27
SP - 8142
EP - 8156
JO - Environmental Science and Pollution Research
JF - Environmental Science and Pollution Research
ER -