scholarly journals Drivers of Public Health Expenditure in Kenya: Do Structural Breaks Matter?

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (23) ◽  
pp. 143
Author(s):  
Cyprian Amutabi
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Expenditure ◽  
Structural Breaks ◽  
Healthcare Expenditure ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Structural Break ◽  
Public Healthcare ◽  
Health Coverage ◽  
Public Health Expenditure ◽  
Long Run

Health forms the basic foundation of the quality of human life, which is an ultimate ingredient towards the productivity and efficiency of an economy. The rapid growth of health expenditure has emerged as an enormous concern for many households and governments globally. This study used timeseries data for the period 1985–2018 in unearthing the drivers of healthcare expenditure in Kenya, with a central focus on the role of health shocks. The study also sought to assess whether structural breaks mattered in a healthcare expenditure model. A public healthcare expenditure model was estimated using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model. The findings revealed the presence of a long-run relationship between public health expenditure and its determinants in Kenya. Population growth rate and CO2 emissions (proxy to respiratory illnesses) were found to significantly and positively determine public health expenditure in the short run. This impact was insignificant in the long run. Similarly, GDP per capita and the number of HIV/AIDs infections positively and significantly determined public health expenditure in the long run. A key finding of this study highlighted the importance of testing for structural breaks in analyzing a time-series healthcare expenditure model. Previously, this is something that has been largely omitted in the Kenyan healthcare context. The structural break dummy variables significantly determined public health expenditure and, therefore, their incorporation in the model yielded a more accurate forecast with better econometric estimates. The findings will be useful in informing the government’s health budgetary allocation as well as the design of appropriate shock mitigation policies. This is paramount for the country in achieving not only Universal Health Coverage but also high-quality medical care to its citizens as envisioned in the ‘Big Four Agenda’ government priorities.

scholarly journals Short-Run and Long-Run Income Elasticity of Healthcare Expenditure in India: Role of Domestic Revenue and Public Debt

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deepak Kumar Behera ◽  
Umakant Dash
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Debt ◽  
Health Expenditure ◽  
Structural Breaks ◽  
Healthcare Expenditure ◽  
Income Elasticity ◽  
Public Health Expenditure ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Short Run

Abstract Existing literature argues that income growth is an important determinant for change in healthcare expenditure in developing economies. Most of them examine the elasticity of public health expenditure concerning per capita income while the role of fiscal policies – public revenue and public debt to determine the level of spending has never been studied. Therefore, this study examines the income elasticity of public health expenditure in both short-run and long-run by controlling domestic revenue, and public debt (i.e. borrowings) in India for the period from 1980-81 to 2015-16. The study follows three steps for empirical analysis. First, we test stationarity properties of variables using the Zivot and Andrews (ZA) unit root test assuming that the Indian economy might have experienced structural breaks at different time points. Second, we examine the cointegrating relationships among variables using the Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach. Third, we estimate both short-run and long-run elasticity by controlling structural-breaks using the unrestricted Error-Correction Term (ECT). Our result finds that domestic revenue (i.e. tax and non-tax) shows a positive and statistically significant effect while public debt (i.e. domestic and external) shows a negative and statistically significant effect on health expenditure respectively. It implies that a 1 percent increase in revenue leads to a 0.78 percent increment in public health expenditure annually while a 1 percent increase in public debt leads to an -0.51 percent reduction in public health expenditure in the long-run. Our result suggests that conducive public finance policies and alternative revenue mobilization could be a potential strategy to increase the level of health spending in India.

scholarly journals National rural health mission and the interstate variations in public healthcare spending in India: A study of the Indian North-Eastern states

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Motika S Rymbai ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Rural Health ◽  
Health Expenditure ◽  
National Rural Health Mission ◽  
Public Healthcare ◽  
Indian States ◽  
Public Health Expenditure ◽  
The North ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Before And After

Background/Objectives: The North-Eastern region of India comprised of eight states of which seven states come under small states and special category states. The region has a very large rural population which is highly agrarian in nature. The performances of the states in many of the health indicators have been better than most of big Indian states yet the status of health infrastructure and health accessibility in the region are still a grave concern. The study aims to find the interstate variations before and after the implementation of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) Act of 2005, on the public health expenditure in the North-Eastern states. Methodology: The data on public health expenditure has been obtained from the State Finance Reports of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on population from the office of the Registrar General & Census Commission of India and the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) from the Directorate of Economics and Statistics of respective state governments, Central Statistics Office. The study is of twenty-six years, 1990-91 to 2015-16. The study uses the coefficient of variation to determine the extent of interstate variations. Findings: The study found that the interstate variation in public healthcare expenditure with all the eight states in the region is on a decline. Further, the study found that post NRHM, the states have equalised their proportion of health spending. Novelty/Improvement: There have been no studies to compare the interstate disparity in public health expenditure in the North-Eastern states before and after the implementation of NRHM in recent years. Keywords: Public health expenditure; interstate variations; National rural health mission; North Eastern States; India

scholarly journals Public Health Expenditure and Under-five Mortality in Nigeria: An Overview for Policy Intervention

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (E) ◽  
pp. 353-362
Author(s):  
Dominic E. Azuh ◽  
Romanus Osabohien ◽  
Mary Orbih ◽  
Abigail Godwin
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Expenditure ◽  
Maternal Education ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Public Health Expenditure ◽  
Development Indicators ◽  
Under Five ◽  
Health Fund ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The Government

AIM: This study looked at the contribution of the health expenditure by the government on under-five mortality in Nigeria. METHODS: The autoregressive distribution lag technique was employed in this study in examining the long-run effect of public health expenditure on under-five mortality in Nigeria. Data were sourced from the World Development Indicators for the period 1985–2017. RESULTS: Results from the study showed that though public health expenditure is statistically significant, it showed a positive relationship with the under-five mortality. CONCLUSION: The implication of this result is that 1 unit increase in public health expenditure would improve increase under-five mortality rate by 1.56 units. However, in the Nigerian context, this can be better explained by the lack of proper health-fund coordination and other factors such as maternal education. Therefore, the study concluded by recommending that proper health-fund coordination should be put in place to ensure that budget allocated to the health sector is being spent properly.  

Empirical analysis of factors influencing the public health expenditure in Malaysia

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Kok Wooi Yap ◽  
Doris Padmini Selvaratnam
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Infant Mortality ◽  
Health Expenditure ◽  
Price Index ◽  
Infant Mortality Rate ◽  
Public Health Expenditure ◽  
The Public ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Per Capita

This study aims to investigate the determinants of public health expenditure in Malaysia. An Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach proposed by Pesaran & Shin (1999) and Pesaran et al. (2001) is applied to analyse annual time series data during the period from 1970 to 2017. The study focused on four explanatory variables, namely per capita gross domestic product (GDP), healthcare price index, population aged 65 years and above, as well as infant mortality rate. The bounds test results showed that the public health expenditure and its determinants are cointegrated. The empirical results revealed that the elasticity of government health expenditure with respect to national income is less than unity, indicating that public health expenditure in Malaysia is a necessity good and thus the Wagner’s law does not exist to explain the relationship between public health expenditure and economic growth in Malaysia. In the long run, per capita GDP, healthcare price index, population aged more than 65 years, and infant mortality rate are the important variables in explaining the behaviour of public health expenditure in Malaysia. The empirical results also prove that infant mortality rate is significant in influencing public health spending in the short run. It is noted that macroeconomic and health status factors assume an important role in determining the public health expenditure in Malaysia and thus government policies and strategies should be made by taking into account of these aspects.

scholarly journals Public Health Expenditures and Health Outcomes: New Evidence from Ghana

Economies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Micheal Kofi Boachie ◽  
K. Ramu ◽  
Tatjana Põlajeva
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Least Squares ◽  
Health Expenditure ◽  
Government Intervention ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Health Expenditures ◽  
Public Health Expenditure ◽  
Life Expectancy At Birth ◽  
The Cost

The effect of government spending on population’s health has received attention over the past decades. This study re-examines the link between government health expenditures and health outcomes to establish whether government intervention in the health sector improves outcomes. The study uses annual data for the period 1980–2014 on Ghana. The ordinary least squares (OLS) and the two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimators are employed for analyses; the regression estimates are then used to conduct cost-effectiveness analysis. The results show that, aside from income, public health expenditure contributed to the improvements in health outcomes in Ghana for the period. We find that, overall, increasing public health expenditure by 10% averts 0.102–4.4 infant and under-five deaths in every 1000 live births while increasing life expectancy at birth by 0.77–47 days in a year. For each health outcome indicator, the effect of income dominates that of public spending. The cost per childhood mortality averted ranged from US$0.20 to US$16, whereas the cost per extra life year gained ranged from US$7 to US$593.33 (2005 US$) during the period. Although the health effect of income outweighs that of public health spending, high (and rising) income inequality makes government intervention necessary. In this respect, development policy should consider raising health sector investment inter alia to improve health conditions.

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