Parkin D, McGuire A, Yule B
J Health Econ. 1987 Jun;6(2):109-27. doi: 10.1016/0167-6296(87)90002-6.
It is well known that a strong relationship exists between national expenditures on health care and national income. This has been used to suggest that health care is a luxury good, and that factors such as the type of health care delivery system in a country are of little importance in determining expenditure levels. This paper argues that these implications rely upon the application of microeconomic analysis to macroeconomic data, and that this is not appropriate. As well as raising questions about the inferences drawn from previous studies, new empirical evidence is presented which casts some doubts on previous findings. International comparisons are based on Purchasing Power Parity rather than exchange rate conversions, underlining the importance of prices as well as quantities in the relationship, and leading to the conclusion that the aggregate data show health care to be, if anything, a necessity rather than a luxury good.
众所周知，国家在医疗保健方面的支出与国民收入之间存在着紧密的关系。这一点被用来表明医疗保健是一种奢侈品，并且诸如一个国家的医疗保健提供系统类型等因素在决定支出水平方面并不重要。本文认为，这些观点依赖于将微观经济分析应用于宏观经济数据，而这是不合适的。除了对先前研究得出的推论提出质疑外，还给出了新的实证证据，这对先前的研究结果产生了一些怀疑。国际比较是基于购买力平价而非汇率换算，这突出了价格以及数量在这种关系中的重要性，并得出结论：总体数据显示医疗保健即便有什么特点的话，也是一种必需品而非奢侈品。
