Pharmaceutical expenditure, total health‐care expenditure and GDP
分析了1960-2003年OECD主要经济体药品支出与GDP的关系，发现该关系不稳定，且药品支出弹性变化源于私人成分，总医疗支出弹性变化源于药品支出行为。
This paper analyses the evolution of pharmaceutical expenditure with respect to GDP for a group of the most important OECD economies. We find that this relationship is not stable across the sample considered (1960-2003), and heterogeneity is found in the temporal evolution of the variables and across countries. Furthermore, we can see differences in the income elasticity estimation when we disaggregate pharmaceutical expenditure into its private and government components or when the total health-care expenditure (Total HCE) is disaggregated into its pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical components. We conclude that the changes in the elasticity of pharmaceutical expenditure and in the Total HCE elasticity are due to the private component and the pharmaceutical expenditure behaviour, respectively.