Regional inequality in China's health care expenditures

Win Lin Chou and Zijun Wang

Health Economics, 2009, vol. 18, issue S2, S137-S146

Abstract: This paper has two parts. The first part examines the regional health expenditure inequality in China by testing two hypotheses on health expenditure convergence. Cross‐section regressions and cluster analysis are used to study the health expenditure convergence and to identify convergence clusters. We find no single nationwide convergence, only convergence by cluster. In the second part of the paper, we investigate the long‐run relationship between health expenditure inequality, income inequality, and provincial government budget deficits (BD) by using new panel cointegration tests with health expenditure data in China's urban and rural areas. We find that the income inequality and real provincial government BD are useful in explaining the disparity in health expenditure prevailing between urban and rural areas. In order to reduce health‐spending inequality, one long‐run policy suggestion from our findings is for the government to implement more rapid economic development and stronger financing schemes in poorer rural areas. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.1511

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:18:y:2009:i:s2:p:s137-s146

Access Statistics for this article

Health Economics is currently edited by Alan Maynard, John Hutton and Andrew Jones

More articles in Health Economics from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().