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A Time-Series Investigation of the U.S. Real Health Expenditure: Evidence from Nonlinear Unit Root Tests

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Abstract

This paper contributes to the literature on health expenditure studies by applying the non-linear unit root tests formulated recently by Kapetanios et al. (Journal of Econometrics 112(2):359–79, 2003) to empirically test whether the U.S. real health expenditure time-series are non-stationary or non-linear and globally stationary during a relatively long period from 1965 to 2009. For comparison purposes, it also reports the results of a battery of traditional linear unit root tests and the Lee and Strazicich’s minimum LM unit root (Review of Economics and Statistics 85(4):1082–1089, 2003) test for structural breaks. The empirical findings of the paper show that in the United States during the period under investigation, the real health expenditure time-series are non-stationary in levels. Policy implications of the empirical findings are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

This paper is a revised version of a paper presented at the 2011 Academy of Economics and Finance annual meeting on February 11, 2011 in Jacksonville, Florida.

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Correspondence to Vasudeva N. R. Murthy.

Appendix A

Appendix A

Fig. 1
figure 1

Per capita U.S. health care expenditure(in 1982–84 dollars)

Fig. 2
figure 2

Log of per capita U.S. health care expenditure

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Murthy, V.N.R. A Time-Series Investigation of the U.S. Real Health Expenditure: Evidence from Nonlinear Unit Root Tests. Int Adv Econ Res 18, 429–438 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11294-012-9374-z

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