Determinants of Health Expenditures: Stylized Facts and a New Signal

Abstract

This article further investigates the determinants of health expenditures by using aggregate data. Specifically, a panel data analysis of 25 OECD countries reveals that under several model specifications, the proxy for population ageing has no effect on health costs in accordance with recent findings. In contrast to this well-known result, an additional estimation conducted to check robustness revealed that the ageing variable becomes positive and significant. The significant effect may provide a new signal for a determinant of health expenditures. This result suggests that ageing is an important factor that cannot be ignored when considering variations in health expenditures.