Description/Abstract
This paper investigates the factors that determine differences across OECD countries in health outcomes, using data on life expectancy at age 65, over the period 1960 to 2007. We estimate a production function where life expectancy depends on health and social spending, lifestyle variables, and medical innovation. Our first set of regressions includes a set of observed medical technologies by country. Our second set of regressions proxy technology using a spatial process. The paper also tests whether in the long-run countries tend to achieve similar levels of health outcomes. Our results show that health spending has a significant and mild effect on health out- comes, even after controlling for medical innovation. However, its short-run adjustments do not seem to have an impact on health care productivity. Spatial spill overs in life expectancy are significant and point to the existence of interdependence across countries in technology adoption. Furthermore, nations with initial low levels of life expectancy tend to catch up with those with longer-lived populations.
Document Type
Working Paper
Date
3-2011
Keywords
Life expectancy, health care production, health expenditure, spatial dependence
Series
Working Papers Series
Disciplines
Economics
Recommended Citation
Baltagi, Badi H.; Moscone, Francesco; and Tosetti, Elisa, "Medical Technology And The Production Of Health Care" (2011). Center for Policy Research. 161.
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/161
Source
local input
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Additional Information
Working paper no. 130