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The main aim of this paper is to empirically test a model that has central government health expenditure and advancement in medical technology as two separate determinants of economic growth rates in the Pacific island countries (PICs).

The data used in this research have been collected from WHO and ADB database for the periods between 2000 and 2012. The model used to test the main research question is based on the variant Cobb-Douglas production function with constant returns to scale.

This research found that health expenditure has a significant impact on the economic growth rate of the PICs. This study also found that the contemporary level of usage of advanced medical technology in the PICs is relatively low as compared to the total population of the country. If the PICs need to achieve high levels of economic growth rates, governments of the PICs need to improve its expenditure in the health sector. Good and qualified doctors need to be hired and the medical education has to be made more competitive. Improvement in the health services in the PICs will reduce mortality, improve per capita health and improve the national economic welfare of Oceania region.

Data availability was the major limitation in this research. Data were available for only seven PICs.

This research has implications for the academics, practitioners, and policy makers.

The research findings from this research have implications for the society as it shows that health expenditure is positively related to economic growth rates.

In the context of the PICs, no studies have been conducted that have analysed the relationship between health expenditure, medical technology advancement and the economic growth rate of the PICs. This research seeks to build and extend the existing state of research on augmented Cobb-Douglas production function and health economics in the PICs.

The purpose of this paper is to study the mutual disruption and support of economic growth and health improvement in the last 500 years in the UK.

The paper is a general review and it compares institutional development, public policy, technological advances and scientific discoveries in economic growth with those in health improvement.

The paper finds the co-existence of slower economic growth and less increasing life expectancy from 1541 to 1871 and that of faster economic growth and rising life expectancy from 1871 to 2001. It is organized health improvement that effectively propelled economic growth in the time span of 1871-2001.

The findings may contribute to the literature on mutual enhancement between economic growth and health improvement.

The findings may also provide implications to the policy makers how important organized health improvement is to economic growth.

The findings show that when UK Government was leading in organized health improvement for the population, economic grown got propelled into a faster lane.

This paper is among the first to unveil that a socially responsible government has permanent impact on the paths of both economic and social growth. It has value to other researchers attempting to understand the mutual disruption and support of economic growth and health improvement in the historical UK.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the long-term impacts of health capital on economic growth in Singapore from 1980 to 2013.

Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL)-ECM methodology and several diagnostic and specification tests were used to estimate the impact of health capital on economic growth on time series data covering the period 1980-2013.

The results confirm that health capital (measure by health expenditure per capita) positively and significantly affects Singapore’s economic growth in the long run. In addition, the equilibrium error correction coefficient lagged by one in the short-run is approximately 83.25 percent for all estimated variables, implying a considerably high speed of long-term adjustment to equilibrium following a short-term shock. Moreover, the Toda-Yamamoto’s Granger causality estimation reveals that there is a unidirectional causality from health expenditure per capita to GDP per capita.

The findings imply that Singapore’s economic growth could be improved significantly if expenditure on health capital is increased. This eventually would have a substantial impact on human productivity which leads to improved output per capita. Thus, policy makers and/or the government should strive to create institutional capacity to improve basic health service by strengthening the health institutions infrastructure that produces healthy and quality manpower.

Grounded on the premises that there are little or no studies on the impact of health capital on Singapore economy, this paper provides new evidence on the potential effect of health capital on Singapore’s economic growth over the last three decades. Also, this study explore the causal effect (unidirectional or bidirectional) between health capital and economic growth.

This study aims to explain the role of health on economic growth for OECD countries in the context of sustainable development. Accordingly, the study investigates the relationship between health and economic growth in OECD countries.

This study employed cluster analysis and econometric methods. By cluster analysis, 12 OECD countries (France, Germany, Finland, Slovenia, Belgium, Portugal, Estonia, Czech Republic, Hungary, South Korea, Poland and Slovakia) were classified into two clusters as high and low health status through health indicators. For panel threshold analysis, the data included growth rates, life expectancy at birth, export rates, population data, fixed capital investments, inflation and foreign direct investment for the period of 1999–2016.

The study determined two main clusters as countries with high health status (level) and low health status (level), but there was no threshold effect in clusters. It was concluded that an increase in the life expectancy at birth of countries with higher health status had no significant impact on economic growth. However, the increase in the life expectancy at birth of countries with lower health status influenced economic growth positively.

This study used data that including period of 1999–2016 for OECD countries. In addition, the study used cluster analysis to determine health status of countries, and then panel threshold analysis was preferred to explain significant relations.

This study showed that the role of health on economic growth can change toward country groups as higher and lower health status. It was proved that higher life expectancy can influence economic growth positively in countries with worse or low health status. In this context, developing countries, which try to achieve sustainable development, should improve their health status to achieve economic and social development at the same time.

The purpose of this paper is to employ a two-step approach to investigate the bi-directional causal linkage between: economic growth (measured by GDP) and public expenditure on health; public expenditure on health and infant mortality rate (IMR); and economic growth and IMR in the Indian context.

The present study uses econometric analysis, namely, panel cointegration and Granger causality on 20-year panel data on 16 major Indian states to investigate the causality.

The results suggest GDP to Granger cause public expenditure on health both in the short run and in the long run, but public expenditure on health to Granger cause GDP only in the long run. Further, public expenditure on health and economic growth were found to Granger cause IMR in the long run. However, the reverse linkage from IMR to public expenditure on health and/or economic growth was not significant.

The present study provides support to the existing literature on the effects of economic growth on health expenditure and health outcomes but also raises a question on the time required to realize the same.

The findings have implications for policy makers on the time frame and application of health expenditure to achieve better results.

The present study is one of the first to test the tripartite linkage between economic growth, public health expenditure and health outcomes at a state-level analysis.

This paper aims to examine the dynamic relationship among energy efficiency, health expenditure and economic growth in Malaysia over the sample period of 1980–2016.

This study uses autoregressive distributed lag cointegration analysis and the causality approach by the vector error correction model to analyse the relationship among energy efficiency, which is proxied by energy intensity and the determinant factors.

The findings of this paper suggest long-run cointegration causal links between economic growth and health expenditure. However, a mixed conclusion for both determinants exists: an increase in real income contributes to more efficient use of energy sources, whereas an increase in government spending on health intensifies energy usage.

Most previous relevant research has focussed on energy efficiency as measured by economic intensity and economic growth and do not relate to the issue of health expenditure. The recent health catastrophe brought on by the COVID-19 epidemic emphasises the significance of allocating more resources to health care. The findings will be helpful in the development of energy efficiency and economic policies in pursuit of sustainable development goals.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of economic freedom on four key health indicators (namely, life expectancy, infant mortality rate, under-five mortality rate and neonatal mortality rate) by using a panel dataset of 34 sub-Saharan African countries from 2005 to 2016.

The study obtains data from the World Development Indicators (WDI) of the World Bank and the Fraser Institute. It uses fixed effects regression to estimate the effect of economic freedom on health outcomes and attempts to resolve the endogeneity problems by using two-stage least squares regression (2SLS).

The results indicate a favourable impact of economic freedom on health outcomes. That is, higher levels of economic freedom reduce mortality rates and increase life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa. All areas of economic freedom, except government size, have a significant and positive effect on health outcomes.

This study analyses the effect of economic freedom on health at a broad level. Country-specific studies at a disaggregated level may provide additional information about the impact of economic freedom on health outcomes. Also, this study does not control for some important variables such as education, income inequality and foreign aid due to data constraints.

The findings suggest that sub-Saharan African countries should focus on enhancing the quality of economic institutions to improve their health outcomes. This may include policy reforms that support a robust legal system, protect property rights, promote free trade and stabilise the macroeconomic environment. In addition, policies that raise urbanisation, increase immunisation and lower the incidence of HIV are likely to produce a substantial improvement in health outcomes.

Extant economic freedom-health literature does not focus on endogeneity problems. This study uses instrumental variables regression to deal with endogeneity. Also, this is one of the first attempts to empirically investigate the relationship between economic freedom and health in the case of sub-Saharan Africa.

The purpose of this paper, on Portugal, is to determine the economic effects of public and private capital spending on health.

The authors use a vector autoregressive model to estimate the elasticities and marginal products of health care investments in Portugal on investment, employment and output.

Every €1m invested in health care yields significant positive spillover effects, boosting investment and GDP by €24.74 and €20.45m, respectively, creating 188 net jobs. Adversely, net exports deteriorate, as new capital goods are imported. While only 28.2 percent of the total accumulated increase in GDP occurs within a year, investment is front loaded with a corresponding 73.8 percent. Over this period, 68 workers are displaced for every €1m invested. At a disaggregated level, real estate, construction, and transportation and storage are industries where output shares increase the most. Employment shares increase the most in professional services, construction and basic metals.

This paper adds to the empirical literature, corroborating, for example, Rivera and Currais (1999a) and McDonald and Roberts (2002) in that health care spending can have a very significant effect on macroeconomic aggregates. In addition to the analysis of the tradable/non-tradable divide, it adds two further novelties by discussing industry-specific effects on economic performance and the distinction between effects on impact and those over the longer term.

As policy implications, health investments have very significant long-term economic performance effects, but are unhelpful counter cyclically. Also, they will change the industry mix: construction and professional services are the non-traded industries that will benefit the most, while the traded industries of non-metallic minerals, basic metals, and machinery and equipment benefit much less.

Given that capital spending on health boosts economic performance, especially in the long run, it ought to be a part of Portugal’s medium-to-long-term growth strategy. Also, if these projects depress economic activity in the short run, and are thus unhelpful counter cyclically, the timing of when they are launched matters. Furthermore, following a health investment, policies that boost net exports will be required to ensure trade balance.

The originality of this paper is to estimate, in a dynamic framework, the aggregate and industry-specific elasticities and marginal products on investment, employment and output, allowing the identification of effects both on impact and over the long term. Although health care investments are expected to have important macroeconomic effects, they need not be evenly distributed across industries.

The economic shock posed by the current COVID-19 outbreak brought out a worldwide public health emergency with a close relationship between the industrial marketing practices, the health level of society and its economic development. The purpose of this study is to analyse the industrial dynamics in health care and their impact on economic growth and health status.

To empirically investigate the relationship between growth and health, the authors use a data set drawn from 29 selected Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries over the period 2000 and 2019. Using panel regressions, the authors investigate the impact of the health-care industry measured in terms of health status, health expenditure, sales on pharmaceutical products, the number of persons working in health care and the coverage by private health insurances. Fixed effect and random effect regressions are used to estimate this model.

Overall, the results are suggestive of a nexus between the industrial marketing dynamics of health-care context and economic growth – both interacting and improving each other. As the quality of the health-care market enhances, the economy grows richer and the health status of the population improves considerably.

To support health-care markets in OECD countries, health policymakers need to formulate a long-term industrial health policy that addresses all the social and individual determinants of health.

To the best of the knowledge, this is the first study to provide a better understanding of the relationship between health-care industrial dynamics and economic growth in OECD countries along different dimensions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically the sources of economic growth based on an augmented Mankiw, Romer, and Weil's model which considers human capital in the forms of both health and education for a group of East Asian economies including China.

Empirical results are based on the analysis of a panel dataset from 1961 to 2007. Sub‐sample estimation for the post‐1997 Asian Financial Crisis period is also considered for comparison purposes.

The impact of the stock of health and education on economic growth is statistically significant for both the whole sample and sub‐sample period. However, the impact of investment in education on economic growth is a little “fragile”. The statistical results show that the statistical impact of health on economic growth is stronger than that of education. It seems that it is more plausible for the policymakers in East Asia to invest more in health than educational human capital.

This paper is one of the first empirical studies to analyze the effect of human capital in the form of both health and education on economic growth in East Asia.