Investigating the Impact of Education Expenditure and Health Expenditure on Economic Growth: Selected SAARC Countries Analysis

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of education expenditure and health expenditure over economic growth in selected SAARC countries by using panel data for  time span of 1990 to 2021. Pedroni and Kao co-integration tests and Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model are applied. The findings show that, in selected SAARC countries, there is a long-term correlation between education expenditure, health expenditure and economic growth. The ARDL method's findings indicate that expenditures on health and education as well as investment have a positive and significant impact on economic growth, whereas government has a negative and significant impact on the long-term economic growth of selected SAARC countries. According to this study, improving human capital through increased investment in health and education is crucial for economic growth, and policymakers in selected SAARC nations should place the highest priority on increasing investment in these two human capital pillars.