Public Health Capital and Productivity in the Spanish Regions: A Dynamic Panel Data Model

摘要

This paper investigates the impact of public health expenditure and variations in the composition of this expenditure on economic growth. We develop an extension of the Solow model, that includes health as a publicly provided input in order to explain variations in productivity. The paper reports the results of an empirical investigation using panel data for the Spanish regions. The results suggest that current government health spending has consistently positive effects, while governmental investmen t in health care has no effect on productivity.