Abstract:

The relationship between health expenditures, environmental pollution and economic growth has recently become the focus of the literatüre. The aim of this study is to examine the effects of environmental pollution and economic growth on health expenditures, taking into account the annual data for the period of 2000-2018 in Turkey. In this study, health expenditure per capita as an indicator of health expenditures, CO2 emissions as an indicator of environmental pollution and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita as an indicator of economic growth are accepted. Empirical findings of this study, According to the Phillips-Peron unit root test, it is examined that the series are stationary at the first difference. The relationship between CO2, economic growth and health expenditure was analyzed using the ARDL bounds test approach. According to the results of the boundary test, it is concluded that there is a cointegration at the significance levels of 1%, 5% and 10%. In addition, according to the long-term parameter estimation, a 1% increase in economic growth in the model on which health expenditures are dependent increases health expenditures by 1.355%. In addition, a 1% change in CO2 emissions results in a 3.598% decrease in health expenditures. CUSUM test was used to analyze whether the coefficients showed structural break in the long term. According to the results of the CUSUM test, it is seen that the coefficients do not contain structural breaks. With the CUSUM test, it was examined that you remained within the 95% confidence limits. The short-term error correction model (ECM) value was obtained as -0.330 from the test results. As a result, the ECM meets expectations and is statistically significant.

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