On the relationship between healthcare expenditure and longevity: evidence from the continuous wavelet analyses
This study applies the continuous wavelet analyses to identify four possible perspectives on the causality between healthcare expenditure and longevity: health as a determinant of healthcare expenditure (longevity leads) healthcare expenditure as a determinant of health (healthcare expenditure leads) feedback (bidirectional relation) and neutrality (no correlation) Our results show that none of these four perspectives regarding the causality of healthcare expenditure and longevity prevail over the period of 1963 2010 in the US. Healthcare expenditure is likely to serve as a predictor to predict the volatility of longevity in the short, medium, and long run, while longevity is likely to serve as a predictor to predict the volatility of healthcare expenditure only in the medium run.