Determinants of Public Health Outcomes: A Macroeconomic Perspective

Francesco Ricci and Marios Zachariadis

DEGIT Conference Papers from DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade

Abstract: This paper investigates the nature of the aggregate production function of health services. We build a model to analyze the role of public policy in determining social health outcomes, taking into account households choices concerning education, health related expenditures and saving. In the model, education has a positive external effect on health outcomes. Next, we perform an empirical analysis using a data set covering 80 countries from 1961 to 1995. We find strong evidence for a dual role of education as a determinant of health outcomes. In particular, we find that society’s tertiary education attainment levels contribute positively to how many years an individual should expect to live, in addition to the role that basic education plays for life expectancy at the individual household level. This finding uncovers a key externality of the educational sector on the ability of society to take advantage of best practices in the health service sector.

Keywords: Education; life expectancy; external effects; absorptive capacity. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O30 O40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2006-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-hea and nep-pbe
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Determinants of Public Health Outcomes: A Macroeconomic Perspective (2006)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:deg:conpap:c011_045

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