Determinants of public healthcare expenditure in Pakistan: role of education, income, urbanization and pollution A time series analysis

Abstract

Public health care expenditure and its determinants have important implication in case of Pakistan. Since last four to five decades, research on government health care expenditure in developed and developing countries has gained attention due to its significance. This paper investigates the effect of two new variables i.e., pollution and total education enrollment at secondary level for Pakistan at national level. Annual time series data for Pakistan is used from 1972 to 2019. Unit root and co-integration methods are used to estimate the determinants of public health care expenditure in Pakistan. Stationarity for all the variables was proved at the first difference level. All variables were proved to be integrated of order one and had a significant relationship with dependent variable (government health care expenditure). The objective of the paper is to individually examine how government’s healthcare expenditure is impacted by the variables including education, income, urbanization, and Pollution in the economy as well as suggesting the relevant policies that would assist in addressing the concern for long run benefits.