Investigating the Mutual Relationship between Private and Public Educational and Health Care Expenditures with the Economic Growth of Iran (a Causality Approach)

Investment in education and health sector, as human capital, has an important role in economic growth and its enhancement in many countries. Lots of studies have been carried out in this field; however, the effect of simultaneous analysis of education and health, as well as the private and state sectors in economic growth of Iran has not been investigated. Thus, in the present study mutual relationship between private and state educational and health care expenditures with the economic growth of Iran from 1965 to 2014 has been surveyed. Therefore, in the present paper variables were tested by using Integration Adjusted Dickey – Fuller test. Then for choosing appropriate causality test, the co-integration between variables was tested by ARDL method. Then, by using Granger, Toda and Yamamato causality tests, the two ways causal relationship between variables was assessed. First, findings showed a lack of long-run relationship between variables. Second, the results of causality tests indicated that there is no causal relationship between private and state educational expenditures with economic growth because educational system faces serious problems such as discordance between the educational system and needs of society and labor market. Also, the obtained results delineated that there is no causal relationship between private sector and state sector health care expenditures with economic growth.