ABSTRACT

This study was conducted to determine the factors affecting health expenditures. Although there are many factors affecting health expenditures, the variables of 138 countries in 2019 from the World Bank database; gross domestic product per capita, the ratio of education expenditures in gross domestic product, the amount of alcohol consumption, the rate of tobacco use, the proportion of population over the age of 65, the proportion of urban population, the proportion of female population and the number of physicians per 1,000 people were taken into consideration. In the study, first classical least squares regression and then quantile regression analyses were used. As a result of the analyses, it was found that in countries in quantile 0.25, quantile 0.50 and quantile 0.75, per capita health expenditures increased statistically significantly with the increase in per capita income. According to another result, in quantiles 0.25 and 0.50, the share of education expenditures in gross domestic product leads to a statistically significant increase in per capita health expenditures. In addition, at quantile 0.25, the proportion of population over 65 and the proportion of female population also have a statistically significant effect on per capita health expenditures. Finally, no statistically significant relationship was found between alcohol and tobacco use, urban population ratio and number of physicians and health expenditures.