Ran Tao’s research while affiliated with Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention and other places

Human health is an important concern that gradually exists in sustainable development goals. The key aim of this study is to examine the impacts of the rule of law on happiness and health using a time series data of China over the data period 1998–2020. The empirical analysis utilizes the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method to find out the short and long-run effects. Findings reveal that the rule of law stimulates happiness and human health in the long-run. More internet and GDP enhance happiness and human health in the long-run. The results also showed that health expenditure and education could not boost happiness and health in the long run, but unemployment's negative effect on health. Policymakers may use our empirical results to determine applicable policies to increase human health across China provinces.

Asian countries have shown remarkable progress in financial inclusion and have become the world's fastest-growing regions. However, the financial inclusion-human health nexus has not received much attention. This study contributes to the empirical literature by examining the effect of financial inclusion on population health using panel data from Asian countries from 2007 to 2019. Population health is measured by death rate and life expectancy at birth. Our study finding shows that digital financial inclusion increases life expectancy but decreases the death rate in Asia. At the same time, financial inclusion positively impacts life expectancy and has a negative impact on the death rate in Asia. Finding also suggests that Internet users, GDP, and FDI have improved population health by increasing life expectancy and decreasing the death rate. The results suggest some essential policy implications.

This paper assesses data from 16 emerging economies between 2000-and 2020 to assess the relationship between business cycles and healthcare expenditure alongside other control variables. Using the Gaussian mixture model, this study analyses the relationship between healthcare spending and business cycles, urbanization, population age, environmental quality, and the gender ratio. The paper finds that there exists a counter-cyclical relationship between economic booms/recessions and healthcare expenditure such that spending decreases during booms and goes up during recessions. The study also finds evidence that environmental quality plays a vital role in influencing healthcare expenditure.

Current research examines how COVID-19 has impacted the daily life of students, specifically personal and academic aspects. The authors investigated the role of academic and family stress caused by COVID-19 on students' depression levels and the subsequent impact on their academic performance based on Lazarus' cognitive appraisal theory of stress. The non-probability convenience sampling technique has been used to collect data from undergraduate and postgraduate students using a modified questionnaire with a five-point Likert scale. This study used structural equation modeling to examine the link between stress, depression, and academic performance during COVID-19. It was confirmed that educational and family stress significantly leads to depression among students, negatively affecting their academic performance and learning outcomes. This research provides valuable information to parents, educators, and other stakeholders concerned about their children's education and performance.

Most Asian economies consist of tourism attraction destinations. The traditional literature explores the cultural, social, and economic effects of tourism; thus, there exists a vacuum related to the impacts of tourism development on the human health of local people. Hence, the current study examines the impact of tourism development on health outcomes of the tourism-based selected Asian economies. The panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) methodology is used to deduce the short-run and long-run impacts of tourism development on health outcomes. The results disclose that tourism activities insignificantly influence health outcomes in the short run. However, tourism development brings improvement in health outcomes in the long run. This research offers a new approach highlighting the significance of tourism development for human health and emphasizes the importance of tourism development for destination management and marketing.

The importance of human wellbeing is documented in the literature of development economics because of its intensifying impacts on economic growth and productivity of labor in the long-run. To the best of the authors' knowledge, no empirical study has examined the symmetric association between China's financial institutional development, education, and health outcomes. Thus, our study aims to fill this vacuum by employing an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to explore the impact of financial institutional development and education on life expectancy and infant mortality rate from 1990 to 2020. The empirical analysis reveals that financial institutional development and education report a significant increase in life expectancy and meaningful reduction in mortality rate in the long-run. Based on these findings, the study may deliver intuitive policy implications regarding improvement in health conditions that are imperative for promoting economic growth in the long-run.

The study's main purpose is to estimate the impact of the financial structure of Asian economies on the healthcare sector from 2000 to 2019. For empirical estimation, we relied on two-stage least square (2SLS) and generalized method of moment (GMM) estimation techniques. Two different proxies, infant mortality and life expectancy, were used in the analysis to represent the health status of the people. The findings of both 2SLS and GMM models confirm that improved financial structure causes life expectancy to rise and infant mortality to fall. Moreover, the increased usage of the internet also exerts a positive impact on the health status of Asians. Further, the rise in gross domestic product (GDP) and health expenditures also improve the health status of Asians by increasing their life expectancy and reducing their infant mortality rate. Improvement in financial structure causes the health status of the people to rise. Therefore, to achieve superior health status, the development of financial structure should be part and parcel of health policies and strategies in Asian economies.

This paper investigates the impact and non-linear effects of urbanization on health care expenditure in China. The results indicate that urbanization in both Eastern and Central regions can significantly increase health care expenditure. But the impact of urbanization is not significant, which is related to the backward economic development level and low urbanization rate in the Western region. Taking population aging into consideration, the results of the panel threshold regression model imply that the positive relationship between urbanization and health care expenditure becomes greater when the level of population aging exceeds 10.72% in the Eastern region and 7.00% in the Western region. Therefore, in the urbanization process, the government should pay attention to the positive effect of urbanization on health care expenditure, provide more financial support for the construction of medical facilities, and expand the coverage of medical services and security for residents, especially for elderly people.

Population health is a key pillar of the fast-growing economies, but several challenges threaten it. This study scrutinizes the impact of real estate prices (housing rent) and inflation on population health by using advanced economies from 1996 to 2019. Health is measured by infant mortality rates and life expectancy at birth. The empirical outcomes show a positive and significant effect of housing rent on the infant mortality rate. In contrast, housing rent improves life expectancy. We also find that an increase in inflation positively affects the infant mortality rate and has a negative effect on life expectancy. GDP and health expenditure tend to improve health by increasing life expectancy and reducing the infant mortality rate. However, unemployment is harmful effects on population health. This study recommends that healthcare practitioners consider the housing market and inflationary pressure.