Effect of Longevity on Economic Growth, Accounting for Variability in Demographic Transition: Evidence for Pakistan using ARDL Bounds Testing Approach
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Abstract
Rising longevity due to access to better health services affects the growth and composition of the population differently than birth rates. In addition, empirical evidence of the effects of rising longevity on standards of living is ambiguous. From the perspective of developing nations, it is important to understand how rising longevity affects national prosperity, as this allows governments to develop programs for increasing investment in the health sector. This study explicitly tested varying intertemporal impacts of rising longevity on the GDP per capita of Pakistan between 1967 and 2020. An Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration was used to estimate and compare short-run and long-run estimates of longevity. The results indicated that a 1% increase in longevity increased the growth rate of GDP per capita in Pakistan by 0.64% in the long-run. In addition, a 1% increase in life expectancy at birth above 62 years increased economic growth by an additional 0.009%. In general, the estimated effect of increased longevity varied by stages of demographic transition in Pakistan.
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Copyright (c) 2024 Dr. Muhammad Mudasser, Dr. Emmanuel K. Yiridoe
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Dr. Muhammad Mudasser, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, Canada
Faculty, Department of Business, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT), 1301-16 Ave. NW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2M 0L4.
Dr. Emmanuel K. Yiridoe, Department of Business and Social Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie University
Professor, Department of Business and Social Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie University, P.O. Box 550, Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada, B2N 5E3
This study used time series data about life expectancy at birth and economic growth in Pakistan from World Bank online databases.
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