Impact of Misery Index on Health Spending in Iran

Health is one the main indicators of development and investment affecting directly on welfare and economic growth.The most important factors affecting economic growth are the labor, physical capital and human capital.Health is an indicator of human capital leading to an increase in labor productivity and thus economic growth.So, health expenditure is introduced an investment in human capital. One of the main challenges in health sector is to identify the factors determining the amount of resources devoted by a country to health care. The misery index is one of these factors.The aim of this study is to evaluate the role of misery index on health expenditure in Iran during 1971 to 2011.The results represent that there is a significant negative relationship between misery index and health expenditures.According to estimations, the government size estimated coefficient, urbanization rate and per capita income have a significant positive effect and education estimated coefficients and income inequality have a significant negative impact on health expenditure in Iran.