THE EFFECT OF AIR QUALITY AND SMOKING PREVALENCE ON DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OF HEALTH EXPENDITURES: AN EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM MENA COUNTRIES

This study aims to reveal the size and extent of the impact of income and smoking prevalence on health expenditures for MENA countries and 2010-2016 period, as well as exposure to Particulate Matter (PM2.5), which is one of the most important determinants of air quality. 1% increase in exposure to Particulate Matter (PM2.5) per capita creates an increase of 1.13% in total health expenditure per capita. 1% increase in GDP per capita leads to 1.03% increase in government health expenditure per capita, 0.5% increase in private health expenditure per capita and 0.42% increase in out-of-pocket health expenditure per capita. It was found found for the MENA countries that the goverment healthcare service tends to be in the luxury goodscategory, but private healthcare service and out-of-pocket health care service are differentiated and included in the necessary goods category. 1% increase in the prevalence of smoking causes a minor increase of (0.030‰) in private health expenditure per capita, and also a minor increase of (0.036‰) in out-of-pocket health expenditures per capita.