Healthcare Expenditure and GDP Growth in D8 Countrie

Being aware of the relationship between health expenditure and economic growth is an important issue in any country. Theoretically, it is expected that there is a two-way causal relationship between health expenditure and economic growth, but the relationship between these two variables should be tested empirically based on econometric techniques in different countries. Konya has proposed a new method for investigating Granger causality in a panel data framework which incorporates both coefficient heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence. His new approach is based on SUR systems and Wald tests with country-specific bootstrap critical values. As a result, in this paper, Konya’s Bootstrap Panel Granger Causality approach has been used, based on data from D-8 countries (Bangladesh, Egypt, Nigeria, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Turkey) over the period 1995-2014. The results show that the real healthcare expenditure per capita is the Granger cause of the real GDP growth in Indonesia, Iran, and Malaysia, while in Pakistan the real GDP growth is found as the Granger cause of the real healthcare expenditure per capita. There was however no evidence of causality for the other countries.