Impact of Socio-Economic Variables on Life Expectancy: An Empirical Study for 138 Countries

Mahmoud MOURAD

Abstract


This study has examined the impact of mortality rate of children under five years of age (MORRATE), physicians (PMP), health expenditure per person (HEPP), access to electricity (AELEC) and GDP per capita on life expectancy at birth (LEB) for one hundred and thirty-eight countries taken as cross-sectional data. The MORRATE ranged from 2.4 to 160.2 (per 1,000 people), thus reflecting an inequality in LEB which fluctuates between 44.8 and 82.8. The PMP varies from 0.01 to 7.74, the HEPP between 16.92 and 8264 USD, the AELEC between 4.1% to 100% and finally the GDP per capita oscillates between 326.6 and 102,863 USD. The multiple linear regression model is estimated using the OLS method and several tests for heteroscedasticity are performed. The null hypothesis of homoscedasticity is rejected and therefore the Weighted Generalized Least Squares) WGLS) method is used to produce unbiased, efficient and consistent estimators. The results showed a negative impact of MORRATE on LEB. A single increase in the number of deceased children leads to a decrease of about 2.12 months in LEB. The HEPP has a positive impact on LEB, so if HEPP rises to 100 USD then the LEB rises by 33 days approximately. When introducing four binary variables characterizing the five continents, and taking Oceania as a reference, the life expectancy in an African country will be about 2.4 years less than the LEB reference. For the other continents, it seems that the values of LEB are very close.


Full Text:

PDF

References


Ali, A., & Ahmad, K. (2014). The Impact of Socio-Economic Factors on Life Expectancy for Sultanate of Oman: An Empirical Analysis. Munich Personal RePEc Archive MPRA, 1-13. Retrieved from https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/70871/

Amemiya, T. (1973). Generalized Least Squares with an Estimated Autocovariance Matrix. Econometrica, 41(4), 723-732. https://doi.org/10.2307/1914092

Bera, A., Suprayitno, T., & Premaratne, G. (2002). on some heteroskedasticity-robust estimators of variance-covariance matrix of the least-squares estimators. Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference, 108, 121-136. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-3758(02)00274-4

Blanpain, N. (2011). L’espérance de vie s’accroît, les inégalités sociales face à la mort demeurent. Paris: division Enquêtes et études démographiques, N° 1372. Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (INSEE).

Charreaux, G. (2010). La gouvernance hospitalière : quelques réflexions à partir de la gouvernance d'entreprise. JEL Classification : I190 ; G390. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/win10/Downloads/1100705.pdf

Chinonso, M. E., Oluchukwu, C. A., Charity, U. O., Nnaemeka, M. E., & Chukwunenye, I. O. (2020). On the Fourier Residual Modification of Arima Models in Modeling Malaria Incidence Rates among Pregnant Women. American Journal of Theoretical and Applied Statistics, 9(1), 1-7.

Corvol, P. (2011). La recherche médicale et pharmaceutique. Conférence intitulée: LA MONDIALISATION DE LA RECHERCHE. (G. Fussman, Ed.) Paris: Collège de France. https://doi.org/10.4000/conferences-cdf.311

Ehsan, R., Farhad, T.-H., & Farzad, T.-H. (2020). How Is Mortality Affected by Fossil Fuel Consumption, CO2 Emissions and Economic Factors in CIS Region? Energies, 13, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.3390/en13092255

Greene, W. (2008, p.157). Econometric analysis (6 ed.). USA: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Hill, R., Griffiths, W., & Lim, G. (2012, p.309-319). Principles of Econometrics. (Third, Ed.) John Wiley & Sons (Asia).

Jordá, V., & Niño-Zarazúa, M. (2017). Global inequality in length of life, 1950–2015.WIDER Working Paper 2017/192, JEL classification: D63, I01, I14. United Nations University. UNU-WIDER project ‘The Economics and Politics of Taxation and Social Protection’. https://doi.org/10.35188/UNU-WIDER/2017/418-6

Judge, G., Hill, R. C., Griffiths, W. E., E, W., Lütkepohl, H., & Lee, T. (1985, chapter 9, p. 351)). Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Econometrics (Second Edition ed.). John Wiley & Sons.

Lee, J., & Lund, R. (2004). Revisiting simple linear regression with autocorrelated errors. Biometrika, 91(1), 240-245. https://doi.org/10.1093/biomet/91.1.240

Lichtenberg, F. R. (2017). The impact of biomedical innovation on longevity and health. Nordic Journal of Health Economics, 5(1), 45-57. https://doi.org/10.5617/njhe.1290

Maddala, G. S. (1971). Generalized Least Squares with an Estimated Variance Covariance Matrix. Econometrica, 39, 23-33. https://doi.org/10.2307/1909137

Mandy, D. M., & Fridli, S. (2001). Exact fgls asymptotics for ma errors. 1-10. Retrieved from https: // www.researchgate.net/publication/23693819

Miles, A., & Mezzich, J. E. (2011). The care of the patient and the soul of the clinic: personcentered medicine as an emergent model of modern clinical. The International Journal of Person Centered Medicin, 1(2), 207-222. https://doi.org/10.5750/ijpcm.v1i2.61

Mourad, M. (2017). Econometrics from Theory to Practice, Volume I . Beirut, Lebanon: Lebanese University.

Mourad, M. (2018). Management Governance Analysis in the Arab World: MANOVA Approach. Journal of Public Administration and Governance (JPAG), 8(4), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.5296/jpag.v8i4.13766

Safi, S. (2004). The efficiency of OLS in the presence of auto-correlated disturbances in regression models.PhD dissertation, American University Washington, D.C. 20016.

Safi, S. K., & Abu Saif, E. A. (2014). Using GLS to Generate Forecasts in Regression Models with Auto-correlated Disturbances with with simulation and Palestinian Market Index Data. American Journal of Theoretical and Applied Statistics, 3(1), 6-17. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajtas.20140301.12

Spillman, B. C., & Lubitz, J. (2000). The Effect of Longevity on Spending for Acute and Long-Term Care. The New England Journal of Medicine, 342, 1409-1415. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJM200005113421906

Suresh, K. P., & Vidushi, S. (2019). Doctor, heal thyself: Addressing the shorter life expectancy of doctors in India. Indian J Ophthalmol, 67(7), 1248–1250. https://doi.org/10.4103/ijo.IJO_656_19

UN. (2007). Good Governance Practices For The Protection Of Human Rights. Office Of The United Nations High Commissioner For Human Rights. New-York and Geneva: HR/PUB/07/4. UNITED NATIONS PUBLICATION.

White, H. (1980). A heteroskedasticity-consistent covariance matrix estimator and a direst test for heteroskedasticity. Econometrica, 48, 817-838. https://doi.org/10.2307/1912934




DOI: https://doi.org/10.5296/jpag.v11i1.18437

Copyright (c) 2021 Mahmoud MOURAD

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Journal of Public Administration and Governance  ISSN 2161-7104

Email: jpag@macrothink.org

Copyright © Macrothink Institute

To make sure that you can receive messages from us, please add the 'macrothink.org' domain to your e-mail 'safe list'. If you do not receive e-mail in your 'inbox', check your 'bulk mail' or 'junk mail' folders. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------