The nexus among ICT, institutional quality, health expenditure, and carbon emission: a case study from Saudi Arabia

The most essential component of human capital is health capital; however, expenditures on health are gaining attention from practitioners, policymakers, and researchers. Accordingly, this study determined the dynamic association between health expenditures (HEP), economic growth (ECGW), carbon emissions (COEM), information and communication technology (ICT), institutional quality (IQ), and energy consumption (EC) in the context of Saudi Arabia. The autoregressive distributed lag and vector error correction model was employed to identify the dynamic linkages among under-considered variables by using data of 1995-2019. The empirical analysis indicated that COEM, ECGW, and EC have a positive influence on HEP, while ICT and IQ have a negative effect on HEP. There is bidirectional causality is identified between COEM, ICT, IQ, and EC, while one-way long-run causality is recognized from HEP and ECGW to these variables. Moreover, two-way short-run causality is identified between ICT and EC, whereas one-way causality is recognized from HEP and COEM to ICT. This study empirically established the essential role of IQ and ICT to enhance air quality and decrease the HEP. Consequently, policymakers should strengthen the institution and implement advanced ICTs to provide a healthy economy.