الصفحة الرئيسية > الإصدارات > The income elasticity of health care spending in developing and developed countries

The income elasticity of health care spending in developing and developed countries

Farag M., Nandakumar A. K., Wallack S., Hodgkin D. , Gaumer G., & Erbil C. (2012)

International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics, 12(2), 145-162.

Summary

To date, international analyses on the strength of the relationship between country-level per capita income and per capita health expenditures have predominantly used developed countries’ data. This study expands this work using a panel data set for 173 countries for the 1995–2006 period. We found that health care has an income elasticity that qualifies it as a necessity good, which is consistent with results of the most recent studies. Furthermore, we found that health care spending is least responsive to changes in income in low-income countries and most responsive to in middle-income countries with high-income countries falling in the middle. Finally, we found that ‘Voice and Accountability’ as an indicator of good governance seems to play a role in mobilizing more funds for health.

Income elasticity ; Governance ; Developing countries.