Spatial and economic patterns in life expectancy among US States

Live and let live: understanding the temporal drivers and spillovers of life expectancy in Europe for public planning

“…From the perspective of economic policy planning this demographic shift is also of major concern to the welfare state, in particular in developed countries, such as health-care provision and pensions [ 8 , 9 ]. Moreover, examining the case of the USA, Maestas et al [ 10 ] identify an economic handbrake effect from ageing populations associated with slower growth in the labour force and (more importantly) productivity per worker.…”

“…Several motivations for this phenomenon are, among others, that the observed variation in the endogenous variable may be influenced by latent unobservable effects related to environmental conditions, lifestyles or culture, the existence of both positive and negative externalities coming from the characteristics of nearby regions or even when economic actors observe past actions of neighbouring actors in their current behaviour [ 20 ]. Thus, for example, looking at the adoption of public policy strategies, it may occur that one country can strategically mimic the (health) policies of its neighbours [ 9 , 18 ], and this may lead to similar strategies and the existence of a ‘spillover’ effect on the (health) indicators of interest. There is a limited literature focusing on spillover impacts for LEAB [ 9 , 14 , 21 ] as well as other health indicators [ 8 , 18 , 22 – 24 ].…”

“…Thus, for example, looking at the adoption of public policy strategies, it may occur that one country can strategically mimic the (health) policies of its neighbours [ 9 , 18 ], and this may lead to similar strategies and the existence of a ‘spillover’ effect on the (health) indicators of interest. There is a limited literature focusing on spillover impacts for LEAB [ 9 , 14 , 21 ] as well as other health indicators [ 8 , 18 , 22 – 24 ]. Perhaps surprisingly, despite our observation above that LEAB improves in successive generations, a further trawl through the literature reveals that with the exception of a handful of studies [ 9 , 18 , 23 , 24 ], these temporal effects remain under researched, highlighting the need for the construction of a panel data set.…”

Do bigger health budgets cushion pandemics? An empirical test of COVID-19 deaths across the world

“…A rationale for this is that if neighbouring countries have better health outcomes as a result of higher spending on healthcare services, it influences the discourse on the healthcare system in the country in question and presents an opportunity to learn, if not imitate, their neighbours. Research suggests that governments of neighbouring countries often coordinate their health policies to achieve similar goals for their citizens, such as the prevention of contagious diseases (Baltagi et al 2012;Benos et al 2019). It should be noted that this instrument has been used in previous studies on government spending on health (Benos et al 2019;Filmer and Pritchett 1999;Wagstaff and Claeson 2004).…”

“…Research suggests that governments of neighbouring countries often coordinate their health policies to achieve similar goals for their citizens, such as the prevention of contagious diseases (Baltagi et al 2012;Benos et al 2019). It should be noted that this instrument has been used in previous studies on government spending on health (Benos et al 2019;Filmer and Pritchett 1999;Wagstaff and Claeson 2004). If neighbourhood spillover occurs for health spending, deaths from COVID would not necessarily occur similarly due to spillover across borders, given the restrictions on travel and other lockdown measures.…”