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When the factors affecting health expenditures are examined in the literature, it is seen that one of the most important factors is income. In this context, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between out-of-pocket health expenditures and disposable personal income and revealing the income elasticity of health expenditures.

Therefore, short/long-term coefficients were obtained by analyzing Westerlund (2007) co-integration analysis and pooled mean group (PMG) regression methods for 22 European Union (EU) member states during the period 2003–2017. In addition, a comparison of the long-term coefficients for each country was obtained with augmented mean group (AMG) estimator.

The results of the AMG and PMG tests show that the long-term coefficients between disposable personal income and health expenditures are 0.83 and 0.97, respectively. These results imply that there is a significant relationship between the variables, and that health care should be categorized in the group of normal goods. However, the fact that the long-term coefficient is very close to 1, despite being classified in the category of necessity goods, requires more care to be taken in evaluating whether health services are luxury goods or necessity goods.

The use of second generation econometric tests on both cross-sectional dependence and heterogeneity demonstrates the value of the study. On the other hand, obtaining similar results by investigating the relationship between variables using different appropriate econometric models reveals the importance of the methodology used in this study. It reveals important details in terms of the literature regarding the long-term and short-term results obtained in this study.

This article investigates the dynamic implication of healthcare expenditure on economic growth in the selected ten Sub-Saharan African countries over the period 2000–2018.

The study methodology included dynamic heterogenous panel, using mean group and pooled mean group estimators. The investigation of the healthcare expenditure and economic growth nexus was achieved while controlling the effects of investment, savings, labor force and life expectancy via interaction terms.

The results from linear healthcare expenditure have a significant positive impact on economic growth, while the nonlinear estimates through the interaction terms between healthcare expenditure and investment have a negative statistically significant impact on growth. The marginal effect of healthcare expenditure evaluated at the minimum and maximum level of investment is positive, suggesting the impact of health expenditure on growth does not vary with the level of investments. This result responds to the primary objective of the article.

In policy terms, the impact of investment on healthcare is essential to addressing future health crises. The impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can never be separated from the shortages or low prioritization of health against other sectors of the economy. The article also provides an insight to policymakers on the demand for policy reform that will boost and make the health sector attractive to both domestic and foreign direct investment.

Given the vulnerability of SSA to the health crisis, there are limited studies to examine this phenomenon and first to address the needed investment priorities to the health sector infrastructure in SSA.

The vast amounts of waste generated today threaten economies and societies due to high environmental and management costs. The aim is to investigate the short- and long-term patterns of municipal waste generation (MWG) in response to socio-economic and demographic growth variables at national and regional levels.

A panel data approach employing ordinary least squares (OLS), fixed effects (FE), random effects (RE), fully modified least squares (FMOLS) and error correction model (ECM) techniques. A sample of 28 European countries (2000–2020) and 44 European Union (EU) regions (2000–2018) were selected.

During periods of economic growth and higher employment rates, consumer confidence tends to increase, leading to elevated levels of consumer spending and consumption. Intensification in the production factors, specifically capital and employment, results in an upsurge in MWG, thereby creating a cycle where waste generation becomes deeply entrenched in the economic system in both the short and long terms. Rapid population growth, attributed to higher fertility rates, is associated with increased MWG. At the regional level, a double-aging process and a shift toward an aging population exert less pressure on MWG in both the short and long term. Promoting higher levels of environment-oriented human development yields various benefits, including the generation of greater knowledge spillovers, enhanced environmental literacy, a shift toward circular thinking and the promotion of greener entrepreneurship. Increased R&D expenditures facilitate the development of innovative waste reduction technologies, fostering improvements in waste management techniques, recycling processes and the utilization of sustainable materials.

The research examines the short- and long-term adjustments of MWG in response to changes in macroeconomic variables from low aggregation (countries) to high aggregation (regions). By analyzing the relationship between economic growth, urbanization, healthcare system quality, labor market functioning, demographic trends, educational level, technological advancement and MWG, the study fills a research gap and enhances understanding of waste management interventions. However, data availability and waste statistics accuracy should be considered. Future research could explore the relationship between macroeconomic variables and waste generation in sectors beyond MWG, such as industrial or construction waste, for a more comprehensive understanding of waste generation as a whole.

The positive correlation between economic activity levels and waste generation in both the short and long terms, emphasizes the criticality of investing in waste reduction and recycling infrastructure to mitigate landfill waste. The negative correlation between population density and waste generation stresses the importance of strategic waste facility placement in low-density areas. To effectively manage higher MWG, tailored waste collection systems and initiatives promoting healthy lifestyles are of immense importance. The positive relationship between employment rates and waste generation underscores the necessity of waste reduction programs that generate employment opportunities. The positive correlation between fertility rates and waste generation emphasizes the need for the expansion of extended producer responsibility programs to include products and materials specifically associated with families and child-rearing. Education campaigns and governmental support for research and development (R&D) in waste reduction technologies are also integral components of an effective waste management strategy.

The short- and long-term adjustments of MWG reacts to shifts in macroeconomic variables from low aggregation (countries) to high aggregation (regions). Previous research has neglected the long-term information contained in variables by not incorporating the lagged error correction term (ETM). Neglecting this aspect could result in imprecise estimates of the elasticities.

The study examines the impact of socio-economic governance on economic growth in Nigeria. It measures socio-economic governance from the perspective of fiscal policy, using indicators such as investment in education, research and development (R&D) and health.

This study employs the Autoregressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) Bound Testing method to achieve its objective.

The study finds that socio-economic policies aimed at increasing investment in education are crucial for Nigeria’s long-term economic growth. Additionally, investment in R&D positively impacts economic growth. However, the study reveals that investment in health negatively affects economic growth in Nigeria in the long run. This suggests that if a country overinvests in health, it may divert resources from other vital sectors such as education, infrastructure and R&D, which can hinder overall economic growth. The short-run parameter is, however, not statistically significant in this study.

The study’s originality lies in its exploration of the relationship between socio-economic governance and economic growth in Nigeria, specifically from a fiscal policy perspective. It highlights the importance of investing in education and R&D for long-term economic growth. Additionally, the finding that overinvestment in health may have a negative impact on long-term economic growth provides valuable insight for policymakers in Nigeria and other developing countries. Overall, this study’s findings can be beneficial for policymakers and researchers interested in the intersection between socio-economic governance and economic growth in developing countries.

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the role of population aging in determining the health care expenditure (HCE) in India over the period 1981 to 2018.

While establishing the linkage between population aging and HCE, the study has used economic growth, urbanization and CO2 emissions as control variables and used the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration and VECM based Granger causality approach to estimate both the long-run and short-run relationships among the variables.

The results of the ARDL bounds test showed that there is a stable and long-run relationship among the variables. The long-run and short-run coefficients reveal that population aging and income per capita exert a statistically significant and positive effect on per capita HCE in India. The VECM causality evidence shows that there is a presence of short-run causality from economic growth and population aging to per capita HCE, urbanization to environmental degradation and further from aging to urbanization. However, the long-run causality evidence confirms unidirectional causality from population aging to the per capita HCE.

The research findings could be improved by considering the changes in mortality rate over time because of other environmental factors such as air pollution, among others as control variables. Various other variables affecting the health of an aged person could be considered for better research outcome which is not included in the present study because of the paucity of data. However, the present research findings would certainly serve effective policy instrument aiming at maximizing health gains that are highly associated with the elderly population and economic growth towards achieving sustainable development in India.

The uniqueness of the present study lies in its estimation where the relationship between population aging and HCE is looked at while considering the impact of other environmental factors separately. The causal relationship is shown among the variables using updated econometrics time-series techniques. The study tried to resolve the ambiguity associated with the relationship between aging and HCE at a macro level.

This study aims to examine the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows on tax revenue in 34 developed and developing countries from 2006 to 2020.

Feasible generalised least squares (FGLS), a dynamic panel of a two-step system generalised method of moments (GMM) system and a pool mean group (PMG) panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach were used to compare the developed and developing countries. Basic estimators were used as pre-estimators and diagnostic tests were used to increase robustness.

The FGLS, a two-step system of GMM, PMG–ARDL estimator’s results showed that there was a significant negative long and positive short-term in most countries relationship between FDI inflows and tax revenue in developed countries. This study concluded that attracting investments can improve the quality of institutions despite high tax rates, leading to low tax revenue. Meanwhile, there was a significant positive long and negative short-term relationship between FDI inflows and tax revenue in the developing countries. The developing countries sought to attract FDI that could be used to create job opportunities and transfer technology to simultaneously develop infrastructure and impose a tax policy that would achieve high tax revenue.

The present study sheds light on the effect of FDI on tax revenue and compares developed and developing countries through the design and implementation of policies to create jobs, transfer technology and attain economic growth in order to assure foreign investors that they would gain continuous high profits from their investments.

Firstly, the authors aimed at offering a general perspective on poverty, highlighting important directions of thinking from the theoretical development, including poverty's main causes (like education, health, social protection, economic growth, employment and good governance). Secondly, it was investigated the problem of poverty in Romania after its accession to the European Union (EU), aiming to show (1) Romania's position among the EU member states, nearby (2) the direct and indirect effects of the selected factors particularly in this country.

Based on data from Eurostat and Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), descriptive and path analyses were performed for the period between 2007 and 2020.

The main results emphasized (1) the critical position of Romania among the EU member states in 2020 and the progress recorded since 2007, nearby (2) the direct and indirect effects of the selected factors on poverty in this country. The study highlighted the limited chances for the full participation of the poor people of Romania in the progress of the entire society, especially in terms of education and economic growth.

The major contribution of this study is that it assumes to investigate a profound and persistent societal phenomenon in Romania that is not sufficiently analyzed, discussed and understood. Consequently, this study attained its main objective of showing that the main traditional socio-economic causes of poverty are still pertinent in the actual Romanian society.

This study investigates the impact of international remittances on the economic growth of remittance-receiving countries, using data from 113 developing countries between 1990 and 2015.

The authors used a novel approach to address the potential endogeneity of remittances. The authors estimated bilateral remittances and use them to create weighted indicators of remittance-sending countries, which the authors then use as instruments for remittance inflows to remittance-receiving countries.

The results indicate that while remittances have a positive impact on economic growth in developing countries with high human capital, they do not contribute to growth in developing countries with low human capital. The authors also examined the channels through which remittances affect growth. The findings suggested that remittances do not impact labor supply in developing countries with high human capital, but they reduce labor supply in countries with low human capital. Additionally, remittances increase investment in physical capital in developing countries with high human capital, but they do not have an effect on investment in developing countries with low human capital.

The authors investigated the impact of remittances on economic growth using a novel approach to address the endogeneity of remittances. Additionally, the authors examined the different indirect channels through which remittances can impact economic growth, such as their effect on labor supply and investment.

While science has researched the impact of air pollution on human health, the economic dimension of it has been less researched so far. Renewable energy consumption is an important factor in determining the level of life expectancy and reducing health expenditure. Thus, this study aims to investigate the impact of renewable energy, carbon emissions, health expenditure and urbanization on life expectancy in G-7 countries over the period of 2000–2019.

This study has adopted a novel Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR). Furthermore, as a robustness check for MMQR, the fully modified ordinary least square, dynamic ordinary least squares and fixed effect ordinary least square estimators have been used.

The results indicated that renewable energy consumption, health expenditure and urbanization lead to an increase in life expectancy across all quantiles (5th to 95th), whereas higher carbon dioxide emissions reduce life expectancy at birth across all the quantiles (5th to 95th).

The empirical findings conclude that governments should recognize their potential in renewable energy sources and devise policies such as tax-related regulations, or relevant incentives to encourage further investments in this field.

This paper in comparison to the other research studies used MMQR to investigate the impact of factors affecting life expectancy. Also, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, so far no study has investigated the impact of renewable energy on life expectancy in G-7 countries.

Even with the Saudi Arabian Government's discretionary measures to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the economic sectors were not spared from the damage. Thus, the paper aims to use a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's (KSA) economy, with a special focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and production. These influence the level of poverty.

The paper adopted the social accounting matrix (SAM) for Saudi Arabia built in 2021 by Imtithal Althumairi from Saudi Arabia's 2017 SAM. The model represents a snapshot of the economy and different flows that exist within the tasks and institutions. Two simulations (mild and severe) were conducted because of the focus on the distributional outcomes.

Decrease in job creation and economic growth were significant evidence from the study's findings. Findings show that more families hit below the poverty line because the negative impacts of the pandemic have shifted the income allocation curve. Findings show that the weakest of the poor are mitigated by government social grants during the pandemic.

The paper is restricted to the relevant literature relating to the impact of COVID-19 on Saudi Arabia's economy and evaluated using the SAM model. Moreover, the COVID-19 is still an ongoing scenario; thus, the model should be updated as data utilised for the operationalisation are made available.

The information from the suggested model can be suitable to measure the degree of the harm, and thus, the likely extent of the desirable policy feedback. Also, the model can be updated, as data are made available and formulated policies based on the updated data implemented by the policymakers.

Apart from the recovery planning of SMEs during the pandemic, the paper intends to stir up Saudi Arabia's policymakers through the macro-micro model to recovery planning and resilience of the economy with emphasis on mitigating unemployment.