The main purpose of this research is to investigate the cyclical behavior of public health expenditures and its effect on health outcomes indicators in 50 member countries of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) during the years 2000-2019. For this purpose, the Christiano-Fitzgerald (CF) filter was used to extract the cyclical trend and the Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) estimator was used to estimate the models. The results show that the average value of the cyclical parameter in the studied countries is 0.121, and public health expenditures had pro-cyclical behavior in 29 countries and counter-cyclical behavior in 21 countries. Also, increasing the cyclical parameter (increase in pro-cyclical behavior) of public health expenditures has a significant and negative effect on health outcomes and leads to an increase in the under-five mortality rate (with an estimated coefficient of 0.081) and a decrease in life expectancy (with an estimated coefficient of -0.022) in OIC countries. The results of the estimation of factors affecting the cyclical parameter also show that increasing the share of public health expenditures of the total public expenditures, increasing the weight of social security funds in health budgets and improving institutional quality led to a decrease in the pro-cyclical behavior of public health expenditures and increasing the level of democracy leads to its increase.

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.

Economic sanctions, by causing economic problems for states and influencing their revenues and spending policies, can undermine the quality of life and health for common people. Sanctions can negatively affect the total amount of available resources in a country and the proportion of it allocated to public domains such as healthcare. Thereby sanctions can increase vulnerability of citizens. This study aims at investigating the impact of economic sanctions on public health expenditure in developing resource-exporting countries by applying dynamic panel data method over period 1996 to 2012. The result shows that both minor and major economic sanctions significantly decrease public health expenditure as a percentage of government expenditure. In addition, our findings indicate that major economic sanctions significantly increase public health expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product. This can be attributed to the fact that major economic sanctions have had a greater impact on gross domestic product than on public health expenditure. Overall, the results of this study show adverse effects of sanctions on the health of citizens by reducing allocated public expenditure to healthcare sector.

Health expenditures are divided in two parts of public and private health expenditures. Public health expenditures contain social security spending, taxing to private and public sectors, and foreign resources like loans and subventions. On the other hand, private health expenditures contain out of pocket expenditures and private insurances. Each of these has different effects on the health status. The present study aims to compare the effects of these expenditures on health in Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). In this study, infant mortality rate was considered as an indicator of health status. We estimated the model using the panel data of EMR countries between 1995 and 2010. First, we used Pesaran CD test followed by Pesaran’s CADF unit root test. After the confirmation of having unit root, we used Westerlund panel cointegration test and found that the model was cointegrated and then after using Hausman and Breusch-Pagan tests, we estimated the model using the random effects. The results showed that the public health expenditures had a strong negative relationship with infant mortality rate. However, a positive relationship was found between the private health expenditures and infant mortality rate (IMR). The relationship for public health expenditures was significant, but for private health expenditures was not. The study findings showed that the public health expenditures in the EMR countries improved health outcome, while the private health expenditures did not have any significant relationship with health status, so often increasing the public health expenditures leads to reduce IMR. But this relationship was not significant because of contradictory effects for poor and wealthy peoples.

The problem of increase in productivity and efficiency of health expenditures is important for all countries. In order to increase efficiency and productivity, cognition of the status and efficiency measurement in health system is important. Scope of the present study is Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries over period of 2005-2010 and for this purpose; we used a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). This study is analytical- descriptive study. In this study, the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method and GAMS software are used to determine the efficiency of public and private health expenditures. Output variables include public health expenditures and private health expenditures and input variables encompass life expectancy, crude death rate, infant mortality rate, under 5 mortality rate and fertility rate. Average technical efficiency of health expenditures in the public and private sectors are 0.63 and 0.25 respectively, Results of comparison between the efficiency of public and private health expenditures in MENA countries show that on the one hand, the average efficiency of public health expenditures is always more than the average of private health expenditures efficiency. On the other hand, the difference between the average efficiency of public and private health expenditures has declined over the period. Sensitivity analysis also shows the efficiency of many countries is sensitive to factors such as life expectancy, crude death rates and fertility rates. Average technical efficiency of health expenditures in the public and private sectors are 0.63 and 0.25 respectively. The efficiency of public health expenditures more than the efficiency of private health expenditures, Also, the review of public health expenditures, redefining of public expenditures and consider the role of private expenditures seems to be necessary.

Economic growth has a direct impact on public health expenditures; also, itindirectly affects public health expenditures through the environment’s quality. Therefore,this study aimed to investigate the relationship between environmental performance index,economic growth, and public health expenditures in countries with high and very highhuman development index. The present descriptive-analytical and applied study was performed on 16 countrieswith high and very high human development index. The time-series data required for theyears 2006-2018 were extracted from the World Bank and United Nations database andenvironmental performance index extracted from the Yale University website. Im, Pesaranand Shin (IPS), Levin, Lin, and Chu (LLC), Augmented Dickey–Fuller (ADF)– Fisher, andPhillips-Perron (PP)–Fisher tests for stationary and Pedroni and Kao tests for cointegrationwere used. The study model was estimated by the DOLS cointegration method in Eviews 10software. The mean environmental performance index for selected countries with very highand high human development index was 79.04 and 64.71, respectively; also, the elasticity ofpublic health expenditures to gross national production, environmental performance index,physician supply, and urbanization ratio were 0.96, -2.41, 0.441 and 0.448, respectively. Increasing economic growth, urbanization ratio, and physician supply hada positive effect, and improving environmental performance index had a negative effecton public health expenditures. Therefore, to reduce public health expenditures, policiesare recommended to maintain environmental sustainability and reduce environmentalpollutants, and to invest in advanced equipment to purify pollutant gases. Maintaining andincreasing economic growth is also essential for adopting policies to increase physicians andinvest in health infrastructure.

Parties and candidates in the election campaign try to raise the community to vote for them by offering a variety of social policies. However, the public health expenditures have been raised among the candidates as one of the most important tools to attract votes. Thus, this study uses panel data to investigate whether the components of electoral cycle have affected the growth of public health expenditures in both developed and developing countries over the period of 1994-2010. Using the related tests, two methods of static panel (random effects) and dynamic panel estimation were selected. According to the results, the presence of electoral cycles could not be rejected in both types of countries. Based on these results, politicians in every country increase the public health expenditures before the election in hopes of gaining a greater share of people's votes.

This paper examines the impact of public health expenditures and economic changes on Iran. To do so،it shall use a solo model، a model to explain variations in national health and productivity of an input. It reviews the scientific literature and the effectiveness and accountability of the public health expenditure & labor productivity; empirical results of panel 28 provinces of the data model in the period of a judge and review the impact during 1379-89. The results indicate that the cost of health expenditure has positive effects on labor productivity are constant، while the investments in infrastructure، health، impact on productivity of ink has been. 6. 3 % of GDPr growth embodied on productivity improvements، results from total government health investment growth in action. It is important to note that the current government health spending is 20 times greater than the impact of government health expenditure in the course of construction are. At the regional level، as well as different patterns of growth resulting from improvement has been seen that this can be interpreted by considering the characteristics of each province.

The impact of positive and negative shocks or the asymmetric impact of public health expenditures during periods of recession and boom (business cycles) on health status is of particular importance in terms of making appropriate decisions in the field of controlling the vulnerability of the lower classes of society in these periods. Based on this, the main purpose of this study is to estimate the asymmetric effect of public health expenditures on the health status in Iran during periods of recession and boom.

The present descriptive-analytical and applied study using the time series data during the period of 1979-2020, investigated the long-term effects of positive and negative public health expenditures shocks during business cycles, per capita income and physician per capita on the death rate of children under 5 years and life expectancy. Filtering approach and three filters HP, BK and CF have been used to identify business cycles. Also, the models were estimated in the form of a regression model using the Non-linear Auto-Regressive Distributed Lags (NARDL) method in Eviews 12.0 software.

The results show that the public health expenditure had a pro-cyclical behavior during the period under review. In the long-term, the effect of negative public health expenditure shocks during business cycles on weakening health indicators is greater than the effect of its positive shocks on strengthening health indicators (confirmation of asymmetric effect). Also, the impact of positive and negative shocks on public health expenditures during periods of economic recession is greater than during periods of economic boom. With a 1% decrease in public health expenditures during periods of economic recession, the death rate of children under 5 years increases by 0.17% and the life expectancy decreases by 0.13%.

Based on the results of this research, it is recommended to increase public health expenditures during periods of economic recession in order to reduce the vulnerability of the lower classes of society. But, considering the pro-cyclical behavior of public health expenditures, it is necessary to adopt policies and solutions to reduce the intensity of this behavior.

An increase in the share of defense expenditures from the total public expenditures may have a negative effect on the share of public health expenditures from the total public expenditures due to the concept of opportunity cost and through the crowding-out effect. The intensity of this effect can change according to the income level. Based on this, the main purpose of this study is to estimate the crowding-out effect of defense expenditures on public health expenditures in countries with different income groups.

The present descriptive-analytical and applied study using the panel data of 90 countries of the world (including Iran) during the period of 2000-2018, to estimate the crowding-out effect of defense expenditures on public health expenditures by separating the studied countries into three income groups including low and below average income, above average income countries and high income countries, and also to examine the cross-sectional effect of defense expenditures and per capita income on public health expenditures in all sample countries. The data used were also collected from the World Health Organization database, World Development Indicators belonging to the World Bank and SIPRI. Also, the models were estimated in the form of dynamic panel data using stationery and panel cointegration analyzes and Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) in Eviews10.0 software.

The results show that the crowding-out effect of defense expenditures on public health expenditures in terms of elasticity and for countries with low and below average income, countries with above average income and countries with high income are equivalent to -0.654, -0.453 and -0.316 respectively. The cross-sectional effect of defense expenditures and per capita income on public health expenditures of all the studied countries is also positive and equal to 0.112.

The (negative) crowding-out effect of defense expenditures on public health expenditures is confirmed for all countries with different income groups; But with the increase in per capita income, this crowding-out effect decreases exponentially. Based on this, it is necessary to adopt the necessary policies to ensure security without spending high defense expenditures, especially in countries with low per capita income, in order to prevent the reduction of public health expenses.