Empirical Analysis of the Relationship between Air Pollution and Public Health Expenditures - A Dynamic Panel Data Approach

This study intends to investigate the effect of air pollution on public health expenditures and to identify the most important factors affecting the relationship between air pollution and public health expenditures. The scope of the study is the developing countries during 1995-2011. For this purpose, a dynamic panel and Generalized Method of Moments are used. The empirical results indicate that there is a robust and significant relationship between air pollution, per capita income, urbanization, government size, aging dependency and public health expenditure and unemployment have a negative but significant effect on public health expenditures. Also, per capita income, urbanization and education have significant effect on the relationship between air pollution and public health expenditures. That is, the effects of air pollution on health expenditures in the countries with higher per capita income, higher urbanization rates and lower education levels are significantly higher than other countries.