Relation between health and wealth: Is it a myth or a true relationship Evidence from Egypt

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between health and wealth in the Egyptian economy during the period 1960-2010. We use life expectancy at birth as a measure for the health and gross domestic product per capita (constant 2000US$) as a measure for the wealth. We employ the cointegration analysis and utilize the linear and nonlinear forms. This paper concluded that for the linear model, the results indicate that there is a positive and significant relationship between health and wealth. For non-linear model, the results show that health and wealth have inverse U-shape relationship. This conclusion will help policy makers and researchers in developing countries with high fertility rate to consider a strategic health program to achieve impacts on nation's health and human wealth. However, further work need to be done in order to specify exactly which policies will be effective in improving economic growth and development in LDCs. EuroJournals, Inc. 2012.