The impact of economic growth on health resource allocation in China: based on a PVAR dynamic analysis

In recent years, public health emergencies have significantly impacted the public health and medical service systems, leading to frequent issues such as varying regional response speeds, shortages of healthcare resources, and increased pressure on healthcare personnel. Promoting the equalization of healthcare resources has become an urgent public issue for the Chinese government, making it crucial to explore factors influencing the allocation of healthcare resources. To empirically analyze the role of economic growth in healthcare allocation and regional heterogeneity, this paper develops PVAR (panel vector autoregression) models based on provincial panel data from 2010 to 2020 for China's east, central, and west regions. The study hypothesizes that GDP affects the quantity of healthcare resources, with variations in the direction and degree of impact across different regions. Results show that GDP indeed influences the quantity of healthcare resources, with this effect being more significant in the eastern and western regions compared to the central region. In various regions, GDP has different directions and degrees of influence on each representative variable of healthcare resources. The paper concludes with recommendations for optimizing healthcare resource allocation. The east should focus on boosting local economic growth and increasing medical expenditure in GDP, while the west needs to expand financial investment and incentives. Measures should be implemented to attract healthcare professionals.