How do University Education, Health Expenditures and Gross Fixed Capital Formation Affect Economic Growth: An Evidence from SAARC Countries

Abstract

Human capital plays a leading role in advancing social well-being by enhancing labor output and productivity to create long-term market success. Considering this, our research makes an effort to highlight the role of university education and health care expenditures along with other factors in SAARC countries. We have used data from 1972 to 2022 for the analysis. The ARDL result showed that trade openness, university education, labor force participation, and gross fixed capital formation have significant effects on the growth of SAARC countries in the short run. However, trade openness, university education, and gross fixed capital formation seemed to affect the growth of the concerned economies in the long run. On the basis of findings, it is recommended that Governments of these economies must focus more on the education and health care of their people for their better welfare. There is also a need to eliminate trade barriers for better regional market access for these countries. Countries must focus on more capital formation to achieve high growth.