Inter-state disparities in government health expenditure in India: a study of national rural health mission

PurposeThe study aims to compare India's public health expenditure at the international and state levels. The paper also empirically examines the regional disparities in NRHM spending across the 21 selected states of India.Design/methodology/approachThe tools of absolute beta-and sigma-convergence are used in the analysis to test the regional convergence. The average annual growth rate across the states is the dependent variable for beta-convergence, and time is the second dependent variable but is used for s-convergence. In contrast, the initial value of NRHM expenditure and the coefficient of variation of NRHM expenditure are used as independent variables, respectively. Descriptive statistics are also used for the study. The data are annual and cover the panel from 2007 to 2020.FindingsThe study attests to the hypothesis of beta-and sigma-convergence for the selected states in the period mentioned. The observed convergence in NRHM expenditure is due to the shift in the government's attention from the non-high focus high focus states to high states through the national rural health mission policy. The coefficient of variation across the states also shows a declining trend and provides the robustness of the sigma-convergence.Originality/valueAs far as the literature is concerned, none of the existing studies examines the convergence of a public health expenditure scheme like the National Rural Health Mission across the Indian states by applying the techniques of beta-and sigma-convergence. The novelty of the study is using the newly updated dataset and validating the convergence hypotheses in the National Rural Health Mission expenditure case.