Health Expenditures Across Major States of India: Issues of Convergence and Equality

Abstract This study examines, diagnoses, and assesses appropriate macroeconomic policy responses of the Montenegrin Government to the outbreak of COVID-19. The model econometrically measures the macroeconomic costs using a Bayesian VARX Litterman/Minessota prior to the pandemic disease in terms of demand and supply loss due to illness and closed activities and their effects on GDP growth in various pandemic scenarios. We explore five economic scenarios—shocks—using the available data from January 2006 to December 2019, following real out-of-sample forecasts generated from January 2020 to December 2020. Sensitivity scenarios spanning January 2020 to June 2020 from ± 10 to ± 60% were analyzed. We observed what happens to the supply and demand sides, namely, GDP, tourism, capital stock, human capital, health expenditures, economic freedom, and unemployment. The results show a toll on the GDP, tourism, unemployment, capital stock, and especially human capital for 2020. The recommended policy measures are public finance spending initiatives focused on securing employment and keeping highly qualified staff in Montenegrin companies. Considering all uncertainties, the rebound of the Montenegrin economy could take a few years to reach pre-COVID 19 output levels.

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Health and Housing Energy Expenditures: A Two-Part Model Approach

Processes ◽

10.3390/pr9060943 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (6) ◽

pp. 943

Author(s):

Fátima Lima ◽

Paula Ferreira ◽

Vítor Leal

Keyword(s):

Low Income ◽

Health Expenditures ◽

Household Level ◽

Energy Expenditures ◽

Health And Wellbeing ◽

Health Gains ◽

Key Factor ◽

Using Data ◽

Part Model ◽

Model Approach

Interest in the interaction between energy and health within the built environment has been increasing in recent years, in the context of sustainable development. However, in order to promote health and wellbeing across all ages it is necessary to have a better understanding of the association between health and energy at household level. This study contributes to this debate by addressing the case of Portugal using data from the Household Budget Survey (HBS) microdata database. A two-part model is applied to estimate health expenditures based on energy-related expenditures, as well as socioeconomic variables. Additional statistical methods are used to enhance the perception of relevant predictors for health expenditures. Our findings suggest that given the high significance and coefficient value, energy expenditure is a relevant explanatory variable for health expenditures. This result is further validated by a dominance analysis ranking. Moreover, the results show that health gains and medical cost reductions can be a key factor to consider on the assessment of the economic viability of energy efficiency projects in buildings. This is particularly relevant for the older and low-income segments of the population.

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