Effects of globalization, energy consumption and ICT on health status in Australia: the role of financial development and education

Abstract

Background The outbreak of COVID-19 has alerted governments around the world, including Australia, to think seriously about the health issues. Life expectancy is one of such issues. Therefore, this study tries to reveal the effects of globalization, energy consumption, information and communication technology, financial development, education rate, and economic growth on life expectancy at birth in Australia. Methods Using the data period of 1990–2018, a series of econometric techniques: the Dickey-Fuller generalized least square test, Autoregressive Distributive Lag bounds test, fully modified ordinary least square method and the pairwise Granger causality test, are applied. Results The findings disclose that globalization, renewable energy use, information and communication technology, per capita gross domestic product, education rate, and financial development increased during this period but non-renewable energy use reduced life expectancy at birth. Unidirectional causal associations of the studied variables with life expectancy at birth are also revealed. Conclusions All the outcomes are relevant and useful for articulating an innovative policy in the health sector. The prime policy implication of this work is: the effective, efficient, and inclusive policies considering globalization, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, information and communication technology, financial development, education rate, and economic growth should be formulated and executed for guaranteeing health status.

The role of renewable energy on life expectancy: evidence from method of moments quantile regression based on G-7 countries data

“…In another study, Adom et al (2021) showed that improving renewable energy could make adequate capacity for tolerating energy shocks and so facilitate improvements in development outcomes; for example, GDP per capita, employment, human capital, environmental health and life expectancy. There are also similar papers with identified findings, such as Rodriguez (2021), Rahman and Alam (2022a, 2022b).…”

The asymmetric impact of fossil fuel and renewable energy consumption on life expectancy in Nigeria

“…Second, the positive link between RNEW and LEXP is confirmed in the studies of Abbas et al (2022), Alharthi et al (2022), Rahman and Alam (2022a), Alam (2022b), andYoussef et al (2015). Youssef et al (2015) stated that clean energy use could benefit human health in different ways, such as a reduction in the rate of child mortality, the adequate storage of basic medicines, the improvement of maternal health, and provides access to ICT and applications of E-health.…”

“…In Australia, New Zealand, United States, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg (ANZUS‐BENELUX) economies, Rahman and Alam (2022a) discovered that RNEW and GDP improve LEXP. In Australia, Rahman and Alam (2022b) discovered that RNEW increases LEXP.…”

Gender perspective on the determinants of health outcomes in selected Southern African countries

“…The socioeconomic factors-health gradient has continued to be studied with more recent studies such as Benos, Karkalakos, and Zotou (2019); Ehmann, Groene, Rieger, and Siegel (2020); Pothisiri, Prasitsiriphon, and Aekplakorn (2020) and Rahman and Alam (2022) supporting the health-advantage effect of socioeconomic factors in Australia, Germany, Thailand and the US respectively as well as Karma (2023);Miladinov (2020) Raghupathi and Raghupathi (2020) and Nwude et al (2020) for panels of European, OECD and African countries respectively. However, a considerable amount of research has also suggested that socioeconomic factors do not significantly predict health outcomes despite the wide range of evidence supporting the positive impact of socioeconomic factors on health.…”