How does healthcare expenditure in retirement: An econometric application for Turkey

The increase in the elderly population within the total population has increasedthe dependent population, depending on the length of the life period.Increase of the elderly population causes and increase in the cost to be bear forhealth expenditures and healthy living and it also has a compelling effect both on the household budget and the government budget. For that reason, examining how the health expenditure changes in retirement is crucial in terms of guiding policy makers. The aim of this study is investigating how the health expenditure changes in retirement and determining the factors which effect the changes in health expenditures in the life cycle model framework for Turkey. In the first chapter, the general framework, aim and importance of the research topic are discussed. In the second chapter, social security system and retirement in Turkey are mentioned. The third chapter, the studies about retirement and health expenditure both in Turkey and at the international level is summarized. In the fourth chapter, the theory of life cycle which is frequently employed in studies about retirement and old age and has an important place in economics literature is adverted. In the fifth chapter, the limited dependent variable models which is the application of this study is explained. The truncated and censored distribution, Tobit Model, Double – Hurdle Model and Box – Cox transformation are discussed in the limited dependent variable models framework. In the last chapter, the data, variables and the econometric model of the study are given. Health expenditure changes in retirement in Turkey and how the factors such as age, gender, educational status and marital status effect the health expenditure are analyzed by Box-Cox dependent double hurdle model.