The (W)Health of Nations: The Impact of Health Expenditure on the Number of Chronic Diseases

Becchetti LeonardoConzo PierluigiSalustri Francesco
CEIS Research Paper
We investigate the impact of health expenditure on health outcomes on a large sample of Europeans aged above 50 using individual and regional-level data. We find a significant and negative effect of lagged health expenditure on later changes in the number of chronic diseases. This effect varies according to age, health behavior, gender, income and education, thereby supporting the hypothesis that the impact of health expenditure across different interest groups is heterogeneous. Our empirical findings are confirmed also when health expenditure is instrumented with parliament political composition.
Number: 348
Keywords: health satisfaction, education, life satisfaction, public health costs
JEL codes: I12,I11,I18
Volume: 13
Issue: 6
Date: Thursday, June 25, 2015
Revision Date: Thursday, June 25, 2015