Environmental quality, forestation, and health expenditure: a cross-country evidence

The study probes the relationship between health expenditures, forestation, and environmental quality using panel data of 87 countries, through 1999-2018. The empirical analysis is based on 16 high-income, 22 upper-middle-income, 18 low-middle-income, 13 low-income, and 18 partner countries of one belt one road (OBOR) project. The Chinese government initiated one belt one road (OBOR) project to enhance the level of cooperation among partner countries in different sectors of an economy. The study incorporates a difference and system generalized method of moments (GMM) to control the problem of endogeneity. Empirical findings reveal the positive and significant relationship between CO2 emission and per capita health expenditure among the selected samples of all countries. However, forest area exhibits negative and significant association with per capita health expenditure in low-income and partner of one belt one road (OBOR) countries. The study incorporates different regression specification categories and amalgamation with different control variables such as per capita income, trade, and industrial value-added to ensure the robustness of estimates.