Does the Great Recession Contribute to the Convergence of Health Care Expenditures in the US States?
1
Department of Economic Analysis, University of Zaragoza, 50005 Zaragoza, Spain
2
Department of Applied Economics, University of Zaragoza, 50005 Zaragoza, Spain
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(2), 554; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17020554
Received: 30 November 2019 / Revised: 9 January 2020 / Accepted: 11 January 2020 / Published: 15 January 2020
This paper examines whether the Great Recession has altered the disparities of the US regional health care expenditures. We test the null hypothesis of convergence for the US real per capita health expenditure for the period 1980–2014. Our results indicate that the null hypothesis of convergence is clearly rejected for the total sample as well as for the pre-Great Recession period. Thus, no changes are found in this regard. However, we find that the Great Recession has modified the composition of the estimated convergence clubs, offering a much more concentrated picture in 2014 than in 2008, with most of the states included in a big club, and only 5 (Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado and Georgia) exhibiting a different pattern of behavior. These two estimated clubs diverge and, consequently, the disparities in the regional health sector have increased.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Clemente, J.; Lázaro-Alquézar, A.; Montañés, A. Does the Great Recession Contribute to the Convergence of Health Care Expenditures in the US States? Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 554.
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