The impact of health expenditure on environmental quality: the case of BRICS

Abstract

There is a significant and deadly link between air-borne pandemics (for example, COVID-19) and air pollution, as airborne particulate matter enhances the spread of such diseases. Moreover, economically disadvantaged groups are more susceptible. This paper analyses the effects of health expenditure on carbon emissions in BRICS (that is, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries from 2000 to 2017. The Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FM-OLS), the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) Granger causality and the Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality tests are employed. In terms of aggregate health expenditure, the level of current health expenditure is significantly and negatively connected with carbon emissions. With regard to disaggregated variables, private health expenditure is also negatively and significantly linked to emissions. However, domestic general government health expenditure and external health expenditure are positively and significantly associated with carbon emissions. Country-specific results are also provided. The causality tests confirm bi-directional causality between the level of current health expenditure, private health expenditure, and domestic general government health expenditure, and carbon emissions. External health expenditure in BRICS does not cause emissions, and vice-versa. VECM causal links are also discussed. The results point to the need to review health expenditure sub-policy programs to achieve zero-carbon targets.

Environmental quality, healthcare and research and development in Saudi Arabia

“…However, while most of the existing studies on this nexus have mainly focused on the health expenditure impact of environmental quality, little attention has been paid to the environmental impact of health expenditure. Safi and Hassen ( 2017 ); Apergis et al ( 2018 ); Ganda ( 2021 ) confirm the effectiveness of health expenditure in improving environmental quality. On the other hand, some other scholars show a positive association between R&D and reducing CO 2 emissions (Gerlagh 2007 ; Lee and Min 2015 ; Ahmed et al 2016 ; Henriques and Borowiecki 2017 ; Costantini et al 2017 ; Zhang et al 2017 ; Petrović and Lobanov 2020 ; Abid et al 2022 ).…”

“…The nexus between CO 2 emissions, R&D, and health attracts more and more empirical and theoretical research studies. On the one hand, a large number of studies have focused on the impact of CO 2 emissions on health expenditure (Narayan and Narayan 2008 ; Boachie et al 2014 ; Yahaya et al 2016 ; Yazdi and Khanalizadeh 2017 ; Alimi et al 2020 ); however, fewer studies have interest in examining the impact of health expenditure on CO 2 emissions (Safi and Hassen 2017 ; Apergis et al 2018 ; Gündüz 2020 ; Ganda 2021 ). Among these fewer studies, Safi and Hassen ( 2017 ) examine the relationship between private health expenditure and environmental quality and they show that increasing private health expenditures leads to higher levels of capital accumulation and environmental quality.…”

“…They suggest that policymakers aiming for sustainable economic growth should augment the spending on health for improving and protecting the environment. For the case of BRICS countries, Ganda ( 2021 ) investigate the influence of health expenditures on environmental quality using the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS), the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM), and Granger causality test. Their findings also show that the aggregate level of health expenditures is negatively connected with CO 2 emissions.…”

Health expenditures, environmental quality, and economic development: State-of-the-art review and findings in the context of COP26

“…The outcomes showed a positive and significant impact of emissions on health expenses in both periods (short and long runs) ( 11 ) also analyzed the association between health expenditure and carbon footprints in the USA. The cointegration results depicted a positive association between the said variables with unidirectional causality ( 25 ) examined significant associations ( 26 ) scrutinized the positive and bidirectional causal relationship between health expenditures and carbon emissions ( 27 ) analyzed the bidirectional causal relationship in the BRICS economies ( 17 ) depicted that increasing energy usage increases healthcare investments that led to higher emissions ( 28 ) determined the correlation between health expenditure and carbon dioxide emissions ( 29 ) observed a bidirectional association between healthcare expenses and carbon emissions.…”

Systematic Analysis of Literature on the Healthcare Financial Models to Follow in Russia and Romania

“…There are many review articles in the fields of healthcare financial models (e.g., [ 5 , 6 ]), being progressively more popular and attracting great attention on the private sector, which is growing due to its several benefits to the patients of post-communist countries. In the papers, researchers focus mostly on topics such as public–private partnership [ 7 , 8 ] and private health expenditures [ 9 , 10 ]. The significance of this particular article consists in the review of certain papers from Russian literature which are not usually included in the English review articles.…”