Long-Term Impact of Economic Misery on the Life Expectancy in Iran

Life expectancy as an important indicator of health has a significant impact on social welfare, economic development and human capital. Accordingly, the main purpose of this study is to examine the factors affecting on life expectancy in Iran with emphasize on economic misery.
This study evaluated the long-term relationship between life expectancy, misery index, per capita public health expenditure, food production index, illiteracy rate and urbanization, by using time series data from 1981-2016. For this purpose; the Johansen co-integration test was used. Also, the statistical analyzing performed by using the Eviews9.0 software.
Based on the results of model estimation, the index of food production, per capita public health expenditure and urbanization, will increase the life expectancy in the long run and the misery index and illiteracy rate will reduce the life expectancy in the long term. A one-percent increase in the misery index reduces life expectancy by 0.27% in the long term.
Adopting appropriate policies to reduce the unemployment and inflation can help boost the life expectancy in the country.