On the nexus of environmental quality and public spending on health care in China:a panel cointegration analysis

Does pollution drive up public spending on health care?This paper aims to answer such a crucial question empirically using a panel data set of 31 Chinese provinces during the period 1997–2014.In particular,this paper explores the non-stationarity and cointegration properties between health care expenditure and environmental indicators in a panel cointegration framework;in doing so,it examines both the long-run and the short-run impacts of the per capita provincial GDP,waste gas emissions,dust and smog emissions,and waste water emissions on the per capita public health expenditure.We apply panel unit root tests,heterogeneous panel cointegration tests,FMOLS techniques,and a panel-based error-correction model.The conclusion is that,both in the long run and in the short run,public health care expenditure is positively affected not only by the provincial economy but also by the environmental quality.