Literature Review
Much of research has studied the concept of the production function of health, which summarizes the relationship between health inputs and outputs. Yet, few of them have analyzed the impact of the economic, social, and environmental factors on the health status of the individuals as well as the society. In this section, we are going to mention some previous researches that are related to this subject:
1. James Thornton 2002: This study provides some new evidence on the effect of medical care, socioeconomic, lifestyle and environmental factors on the health status of the population of the Unites States. The results show that using more medical care is relatively ineffective in lowering mortality rate and hence increasing life …show more content…
Bichaka Fayissa and Paulos Gutema 2008: The paper estimates a health production function for Sub-Saharan Africa based on the Grossman model (1972). The paper used social, economic, and environmental factors as inputs of the production function. Those factors are represented by income per capita, illiteracy rate, food availability, ratio of health expenditure to GDP, urbanization rate, and carbon dioxide emission per worker. The output of the production function is health status measured by life expectancy at birth. The study estimates the parameters of the function based on two methods: the method of one-way and the method of two-way panel data analyses. The results showed a strong negative relationship between health expenditures as a percentage of GDP and life expectancy at birth. In contrast, there was a positive relationship between life expectancy at birth and an increase in income per capita, a decrease in illiteracy rate, and an increase in food availability. Overall results suggest that a health policy, which depend on the provision of health services, family planning programs, and emergency aids to the exclusion of other socioeconomic aspects, may not have a big impact on improving the current health status of the
Much of research has studied the concept of the production function of health, which summarizes the relationship between health inputs and outputs. Yet, few of them have analyzed the impact of the economic, social, and environmental factors on the health status of the individuals as well as the society. In this section, we are going to mention some previous researches that are related to this subject:
1. James Thornton 2002: This study provides some new evidence on the effect of medical care, socioeconomic, lifestyle and environmental factors on the health status of the population of the Unites States. The results show that using more medical care is relatively ineffective in lowering mortality rate and hence increasing life …show more content…
Bichaka Fayissa and Paulos Gutema 2008: The paper estimates a health production function for Sub-Saharan Africa based on the Grossman model (1972). The paper used social, economic, and environmental factors as inputs of the production function. Those factors are represented by income per capita, illiteracy rate, food availability, ratio of health expenditure to GDP, urbanization rate, and carbon dioxide emission per worker. The output of the production function is health status measured by life expectancy at birth. The study estimates the parameters of the function based on two methods: the method of one-way and the method of two-way panel data analyses. The results showed a strong negative relationship between health expenditures as a percentage of GDP and life expectancy at birth. In contrast, there was a positive relationship between life expectancy at birth and an increase in income per capita, a decrease in illiteracy rate, and an increase in food availability. Overall results suggest that a health policy, which depend on the provision of health services, family planning programs, and emergency aids to the exclusion of other socioeconomic aspects, may not have a big impact on improving the current health status of the