title: The income elasticity of health care spending in developing and developed countries.
abstract: To date, international analyses on the strength of the relationship between country-level per capita income and per capita health expenditures have predominantly used developed countries' data. This study expands this work using a panel data set for 173 countries for the 1995-2006 period. We found that health care has an income elasticity that qualifies it as a necessity good, which is consistent with results of the most recent studies. Furthermore, we found that health care spending is least responsive to changes in income in low-income countries and most responsive to in middle-income countries with high-income countries falling in the middle. Finally, we found that 'Voice and Accountability' as an indicator of good governance seems to play a role in mobilizing more funds for health.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada. marwa.farag@usask.ca
authors.forename: Marwa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Farag
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: NandaKumar
authors.forename: Stanley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wallack
authors.forename: Dominic
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hodgkin
authors.forename: Gary
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gaumer
authors.forename: Can
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Erbil
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D019049:Developed Countries; D003906:Developing Countries; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000639:trends*; D018803:Models, Economic