Essays on health and economic development nexus: new evidence from a panel of countries

Download

index.pdf

Date

2018

Author

Öztürk, Ceyhan

Metadata

Show full item record

Item Usage Stats

138
views

84
downloads

This empirical study investigates the effects of health on economic development that include linear, quadratic and cubic specifications for the periods 1940-1980, 1940-2009, and 1980-2009. This study tries to bring out different characteristics of the effects of health on economic growth. Hence, different periods are used depending on short and long-terms of life expectancy, body mass index, and systolic blood pressure as proxy variables for health to investigate effect of health on gross domestic product per capita. These health proxies have common characteristic of being age-dependent. Therefore, these specifications enable us to examine different dimensions of wealth-health nexus. The economic development proxy variables used are years of schooling (human capital), GDP per person engaged, manufacturing value added per person engaged (productivity), and gross domestic savings. The ordinary least squares, fixed-effects and generalized method of moments (Arellano-Bond) estimation are used for 10 yearly and balanced panel data for the 1940-1980 and 1940-2009 periods, and 5 yearly and balanced panel data for the 1980-2009 period for 47 countries. Also, for all these periods, long-difference estimation by OLS and instrumental variable estimation are utilized. Our empirical results with different health proxy variables used are generally consistent with each other. More clearly, there is a non-linear and non-monotonic association between all health proxy variables and economic development proxy variables. As a conclusion, our empirical results provide significant evidence that preserving human physiological health functions reinforces economic growth and other important indicators.

Subject Keywords

Vital statistics., Life expectancy., Economic development.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12622821/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/27816

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Estimation and hypothesis testing in multivariate linear regression models under non normality İslam, Muhammed Qamarul (Informa UK Limited, 2017-01-01) This paper discusses the problem of statistical inference in multivariate linear regression models when the errors involved are non normally distributed. We consider multivariate t-distribution, a fat-tailed distribution, for the errors as alternative to normal distribution. Such non normality is commonly observed in working with many data sets, e.g., financial data that are usually having excess kurtosis. This distribution has a number of applications in many other areas of research as well. We use modifie...
Essays on the middle income trap with special emphasis on Turkey Yılmaz, Gökhan; Saraçoğlu, Dürdane Şirin; Department of Economics (2016) In the thesis, we present two different endogenous growth models for a middle income trap economy. In order to present two growth models, first we investigate the experiences of the middle income trap and nontrap countries. Our analysis shows importance of “human capital” and “structural change” rooted factors to overcome the middle income trap. Second, we analyze the relative importance of these factors by using the shift share analysis. Our findings demonstrate that average labor productivity growth rates...
Cross country evidence on financial development - income inequality link Akbıyık, Ceren; Gaygısız Lajunen, Esma; Department of Economics (2012) This study analyzes the relationship between financial development and income inequality by using panel data of 60 developing and developed countries for the period 2000-2010. We find evidence for the linear negative relationship between financial development and income inequality which asserts that financial development reduces income inequality. We also find evidence supporting Kuznets inverted u-shaped hypothesis on development-income inequality link, except that for the developed countries where we find...
Continuous optimization applied in MARS for modern applications in finance, science and technology Taylan, Pakize; Weber, Gerhard Wilhelm; Yerlikaya, Fatma (2008-05-23) Multivariate adaptive regression spline (MARS) denotes a tool from statistics, important in classification and regression, with applicability in many areas of finance, science and technology. It is very useful in high dimensions and shows a great promise for fitting nonlinear multivariate functions. The MARS algorithm for estimating the model function consists of two subalgorithms. We propose not to use the second one (backward stepwise algorithm), but we construct a penalized residual sum of squares for a ...
Tool-life modelling of carbide and ceramic cutting tools using multi-linear regression analysis Amaitik, SM; Tasgin, TT; Kilic, SE (2006-02-01) This paper presents a study for the development of tool-life models for machining operations by means of a statistical approach called multi-linear regression analysis. The study was applied to a milling process for machining SAE 121 cast iron in a factory without interrupting the mass production. Different cutting tool materials under dry conditions were used in the cutting tests. Several machining experiments were performed and mathematical models for tool life have been postulated by using least-square r...

Citation Formats

C. Öztürk, “Essays on health and economic development nexus: new evidence from a panel of countries,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2018.