Trade and life expectancy in China: a cointegration analysis

The purpose behind this paper is to empirically examine the relationship between trade openness and life expectancy for the Chinese economy. Data are collected for the period 1970–2015. Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Modeling technique is utilized to find out the presence of long- and short-run relationship between trade openness and life expectancy. The findings indicated a stable long-run positive relationship between trade openness and life expectancy. Government expenditures, number of physicians and human capital growth have also positively and significantly impacted life expectancy. Similarly, growth of employment and number of beds in hospitals have influenced life expectancy negatively. Moreover, in the short run, government expenditures, growth of employment, number of physicians and human capital growth have maintained their relationship with life expectancy both in terms of coefficient signs and significance level while the relationship between trade openness, number of hospital beds and life expectancy is reversed.