Determinants of Life Expectancy at Birth A Longitudinal Study on OECD Countries

This paper analyses the influence of several determinants on life expectancy at birth in 36 OECD countries over the 1999–2018 period. We used a cross–country fixed-effects multiple regression analysis with year and country dummies and used dynamic models, backward stepwise selection, and Arellano-Bond estimators to treat potential endogeneity issues. The results show the relationship between per capita health–care expenditure, incidence of out-of-pocket expenditure, physician density, hospital bed density, social spending, GDP level, participation ratio to labour, prevalence of chronic respiratory diseases, temperature, and total size of the population and life expectancy at birth. In line with previous studies, this analysis confirms the positive correlation of both health care expenditure and health care system (physicians and hospital beds in our analysis) and a country’s population life expectancy. It also outlines the association of other factors related to population behaviour and social spending jointly considered on this outcome. Policy makers should carefully consider these mutual effects when allocating public funds, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic period.