An Econometric Analysis of the Relationship between Health and Economic Growth in OECD Countries

The purpose of this study is to investigate the long-run relationship between health (life expectancy) and economic growth in the 25 OECD countries over the period from 1975 to 2008 by utilizing the Pedroni panel cointegration, Pedroni FMOLS and Canning-Pedroni causality methods. The cointegration test results show that there is a cointegration relationship between health and economic growth in the long run. According to Panel Panel FMOLS results the elasticity coefficient of health is % 0.18, the elasticity coefficient of economic growth is % 0.17. The results of Lamda-Pearson statistics indicate the long-run bilateral causality between health and economic growth. It is concluded that there is a strong cointegration relationship between health and economic growth in OECD Countries in the long run.