The effects of transformation policies in health on development

The main goal of this study is to examine the effects of Transformation Program in Health in Turkey (TPH-2003) on development. Health policies that play an important role in national economic development are explained, along with the effects of structural changes on economic development. One of the most imperative components of human capital, healthcare is theoretically known to have a correlation with development, and yet, it appears to be necessary to carry out the econometric analysis of this relationship. Given that, this work tries to show the effects of improvements in the Turkish healthcare industry on economic development by using the annual data of 1975-2012. In this context, two models have been constructed with two development indicators, the growth rate of per capita income and infant mortality rate. Per capita healthcare costs, per capita hospital beds, the number of healthcare institutions and the share of total healthcare costs in national income have been appointed as independent variables. The analysis has been conducted with the aid of classical unit root tests ADF and PP, as well as structural break unit root test developed by Lee-Strazicich (2003) and Hatemi-J (2012) asymmetric causality test. The analysis indicates that the policies applied in the scope of TPH lead to improvements in healthcare indicators, consequently affecting development positively.