Determinants of Health Expenditures on the Axis of Misery Index and Economic Development in OECD Countries: Non-Additive Fixed Effects Panel Quantile Regression Approach

Identifying the growth in health expenditures and the factors affecting expenditure is a global problem. Accordingly, based on the recent developments in the economic growth literature, the determinants of health expenditures in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries with similar economic development levels were analyzed within the framework of misery index and economic development. This study considers the data set and accessibility of the variables in the analysis, conducted for 34 OECD countries covering 2001–2019. In addition to the real gross domestic product per capita, the economic development indicator of the countries, this study analyzed the misery index, which is the macroeconomic performance indicator, the effects of the urban population, life expectancy at birth, household expenditures, and political stability as a state-institutional factor on health expenditures with the non-additive fixed-effect panel quantile regression method. According to the findings, the effect of the misery index and gross domestic product per capita on health expenditures at each quantile level was positive. In line with the findings, for governments to suppress growth in health expenditures, revising the health system would potentially be more effective than improving macroeconomic conditions.