Health Is Wealth: Exploring Determinants of Health Expenditures in the Emerging Economies

To enact sustainable health and development, both the developed and emerging economies are focusing on facilitating the health sector while increasing their economic well-being. To examine the health-related costs and economic growth, we used variables including public health expenditure, private health expenditure, environmental quality, environment index, foreign direct investment, age, education, and economic growth. A panel dataset of six developing countries for the 1994–2021 period was analyzed. By using the novel econometric techniques of continuously updated fully modified (CUP-FM) and continuously biased corrected approach (CUP-BC), the results reveal a uniform positive correlation between public–private health spending and economic growth. The long-run estimation of the first and second models showed that CO 2 emissions and the environment index positively impacted the government’s healthcare spending. All four long-run models showed a uniformly positive correlation between public and private health spending and economic growth.