Access Type

Open Access Dissertation

Date of Award

January 2015

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

Economics

First Advisor

Allen Goodman

Abstract

This paper analyzes the dynamics on health care expenditures and health outcomes for emerging and developed countries. The first part of the study focus on the short-run dynamics in health care expenditures for six emerging and a selected group of six developed economies of the OECD group. An error correction model is utilized for the analysis. Results for the presence of a long term relation are consistent within the sample. In addition, direct convergence is found to be consistent as well. The speed of adjustment is larger for emerging economies than for developed economies, which indicates that developed economies would take longer to correct deviations from the long term path compared to emerging economies. When looking at short-run income reactions, developed economies are less sensitive than emerging economies. In particular, short-run elasticity is more than two times larger for emerging economies. These results also suggest that developed economies may have some form of better planning in addressing health consumption. The results provide evidence that emerging countries react differently from developed economies with respect to health care spending; therefore, health care should not be considered the same for emerging as for developed economies, and these implications should be realized for policy evaluations.

The second paper analyzes the dynamics in health care for six emerging and a selected group of six developed economies of the OECD group. Cluster analysis is utilized for the study. In this study we look at the dynamics on health care in a broader way by including not only “monetary” measures but also measures that can potentially quantify the efficiency of a country in producing health outcomes. We study in some degree at how efficient these countries are in producing health outcomes with regards to their level of spending, health resources and use of those health resources. We take a closer look to the US and explain the factors that make it so different than other countries. The results show that developed and emerging countries are not grouped together when we take into account other factors that influence the health sector.

Included in

Economics Commons

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