The Relationship Between Obesity and Healthcare Spending in OECD Countries
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School of Business |
Bachelor's thesis
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Date
2024
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Bachelor’s programme in Economics
Language
en
Pages
20+6
Series
Abstract
The increasing prevalence of obesity in OECD countries has raised significant concerns regarding its impact on healthcare spending. This thesis investigates the relationship between obesity rates and healthcare expenditures across 34 OECD countries over the period from 2005 to 2019. By employing a fixed effects model, this study controls for unobserved heterogeneity across countries and time, allowing for robust estimates of the association between obesity and healthcare costs. The analysis reveals that obesity is positively associated with higher healthcare spending in certain financing schemes, particularly in out-of-pocket payments and government-funded healthcare schemes, when using multivariate and time fixed effects model. However, the relationship between obesity and healthcare spending diminishes across financing schemes when country specific factors are controlled for. Overall, the findings suggest that the obesity’s association with healthcare spending is heavily dependent on a country’s healthcare structure and economic conditions. This thesis contributes to the broader understanding of how public health issues, such as obesity, can affect economic stability and provides insights for potential policy interventions that could mitigate these costs.Description
Thesis advisor
Terviö, MarkoKeywords
obesity, healthcare spending, fixed effects model, OECD countries