School of Law, Shantou University, Shantou, China.
School of Literature and Journalism, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang, China.
Front Public Health. 2022 Oct 26;10:954080. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.954080. eCollection 2022.
There are numerous factors that affect human health. Among others, environmental degradation, bad governance, and extensive economic growth are regarded as more destructive for health-related issues. To explore the nexus of the said factors and extend the scholarly literature, the current study aims to analyze the influence of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, governance indicators, and gross domestic product (GDP) on human health expenditures-captured by domestic health expenditures and capital health expenditures. Specifically, this study contrasted variables including regulatory quality (RQ), rule of law (RL), GDP, GHG emissions, and human capital (HC) with that of human health expenditure. Covering the period from 1996 to 2020, this study uses time series specifications in the case of China, which is one of the largest pollution-emitting economies across the globe. The empirical results found that the long-run equilibrium relationship exists between the variables. For the long-run coefficients, this study utilizes the fully modified ordinary least square, dynamic ordinary least square, and canonical cointegration regression, suggesting that economic development and RQ are adversely affecting human health expenditure. However, GHG emissions, RQ, and HC significantly improve human health by increasing health expenditure in China. Based on the empirical results, policies are suggested regarding human health improvement, improved governance quality, and environmental sustainability. The study discusses the empirical conclusions and implications as per COP26 declarations.
有许多因素影响人类健康。在其他因素中，环境恶化、治理不善和经济的广泛增长被认为对与健康相关的问题更具破坏性。为了探讨上述因素之间的关系，并扩展学术文献，本研究旨在分析温室气体 (GHG) 排放、治理指标和国内生产总值 (GDP) 对国内卫生支出和资本卫生支出所代表的人类卫生支出的影响。具体而言，本研究将包括监管质量 (RQ)、法治 (RL)、GDP、GHG 排放和人力资本 (HC) 在内的变量与人类卫生支出进行对比。本研究涵盖了 1996 年至 2020 年期间，采用时间序列规格，针对的是全球最大的污染排放经济体之一的中国。实证结果发现，变量之间存在长期均衡关系。对于长期系数，本研究利用完全修正的普通最小二乘法、动态普通最小二乘法和典型协整回归，表明经济发展和 RQ 对中国的人类卫生支出产生负面影响。然而，GHG 排放、RQ 和 HC 通过增加卫生支出显著改善了中国的人类健康。根据实证结果，提出了关于改善人类健康、提高治理质量和环境可持续性的政策建议。本研究根据《联合国气候变化框架公约》第 26 次缔约方大会的宣言讨论了实证结论和影响。
