Abstract
Human capital plays an important role in the process of economic growth. Two key components of human capital are education and health. The primary aim of this research was to test the hypothesis that health human capital impacts the economic growth. This study analysed the impact of health human capital on the economic growth of 181 countries over a 17-year period, 2001–2017, using structural equation modelling methodology and panel data. The study has observed that the declining trends in poverty ratio, infant mortality rate and fertility rate induced economic growth. On the other hand, increasing trends in life expectancy, health expenditure and technological progress positively affected economic growth. Overall, our results using structural equation modelling methodology involving 181 countries from 2001 to 2017 indicate that health human capital can have significant positive impacts on economic growth if adequate measures are taken for increasing health expenditure, life expectancy and technological progress while reducing poverty ratio, infant mortality rate and fertility rate especially for developing countries.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Prof. Denny Meyer and Prof. Nam Hoang for their patience, motivation, and immense knowledge; World Bank officials for making the data available to use; and anonymous reviewers for reviewing manuscript. I take the sole responsibility for any mistakes in the paper.
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Jayadevan, C.M. Impacts of health on economic growth: evidence from structural equation modelling. Asia-Pac J Reg Sci 5, 513–522 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41685-020-00182-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41685-020-00182-4