The Impact of Business Cycles on Life Expectancy in Countries of the Iran Vision Plan 2025

Life expectancy is one of the most important health indicators that is influenced by various economic and social factors; hence, this study examined the effect of business cycles on life expectancy.

This survey is a retrospective descriptive – analytic study that examined the effects of business cycles, unemployment rate, percentage of health expenditures and urbanization on life expectancy in countries noted in the Iran vision plan 2025. After grouping the countries based on the HDI, model estimation was carried out using the panel's econometric approach. For the first and second groups, the fixed effects and for the third group, the random effect was used.

Business cycle in the countries with high HDI, including Iran, has a positive effect on life expectancy and it has no significant effect in the two other groups. The percentage of health expenditure in the first and third groups has a positive effect on life expectancy, but in the second group, has a negative effect. The unemployment rate has a positive effect in the first group and a negative effect in the second group on life expectancy, but in the third group, has no significant effect. The percentage of urbanization also has a positive effect on life expectancy in all groups.

The effect of business cycles and socioeconomic indicators on life expectancy varies according to HDI. Considering the positive effect of business cycles on life expectancy in the second group, including Iran, Increase employment rates and economic expansions will increase life expectancy