| Over the past three decades, a considerable number of empirical studies on the income elasticity of health care expenditures (HCE), and argued that HCE is a necessity good or a luxury good. However, most of previous studies are based on the country-level data. In this paper, we use the data of Taiwanˇ¦s five equal divisions of household disposable income and consumption expenditures to investigate the income elasticity of HCE. Our results find that with the increase of household disposable income, the higher the income elasticity of HCE. This is, when household disposable income increases, the health care expenditure may be changed from a necessity into a luxury. |
Updated 07/09/2013