Health investments and economic growth: a quantile regression approach

This study aims to analyse the relationship between health human capital and economic growth for a maximum sample of 92 countries over the period 1980-2010 taking into account countries’ heterogeneity by assessing how health variables affect different countries according to their position on the conditional growth distribution.

The paper estimates a growth regression applying the methodology proposed by Canay (2011) for regression by quantiles (Koenker, 1978, 2004, 2012a, 2012b) in a panel framework. Quantile regression analysis allows us to identify the growth determinants that present a non-linear relationship with growth and determine the policy implications specifically for underperforming versus over achieving countries in terms of output growth.

The authors’ findings indicate that better health is positively and robustly related to growth at all quantiles, but the quantitative importance of the respective coefficients differs across quantiles, in some cases, with the sign of the relationship greater for countries that recorded lower growth rates. These results apply to both positive (life expectancy) and negative (infant mortality rate, undernourishment) health status indicators.

Given the predominantly public nature of health funding, cuts in health expenditure should be carefully balanced even in times of public finances sustainability problems, particularly when growth slowdowns, as a decrease in the stock of health human capital could be particularly harmful for growth in under achievers. Additionally, the most effective interventions seem to be those affecting early childhood development that should receive from policymakers the necessary attention and resources.

This study contributes to the existing literature by answering the question of whether the growth effects of health human capital can differ in sign and/or magnitude depending on a country’s growth performance. The findings may help policymakers to design the most adequate growth promoting policies according to the behaviour of output growth.