How do economic, health, environmental and demographic factors affect life expectancy? – a novel attempt for developed and developing economies

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ABSTRACT Policies throughout the world are presently focused on achieving a better quality of life and a longer life span through increased financial feasibility, ecological harmony, and economic stability. This effort seeks to empirically assess the impact of economic, health, environmental, and demographic factors on life expectancy in 36 high-income and 65 middle-income nations from 2000 to 2019. Using panels corrected standard errors (PCSEs) regression, this paper assures that high-income nations have significantly longer lifespans. The factors that lead most to this strengthening include GDP per capita, population growth, financial development, food production, and fertility rates. However, high-income countries tend to have shorter life expectancy due to rising mortality rates and carbon dioxide emissions. In middle-income nations, life expectancy falls significantly as a result of rising food production, health expenses, fertility rates, and economic hardship. Still, improving lifespan in middle-income nations is a result of multiple factors, including rising rates of GDP per capita, financial development, inequality in earnings between rural and urban places, and growing populations. The accuracy and credibility of the results are confirmed by using Driscoll-Kraay standard error estimates, feasible generalized least squares, random effect, and fixed effect approaches. The study’s results point to the notion that these countries should put more emphasis on demographic and economic factors that lengthen life expectancy. Further, as health and environmental issues contribute to a shorter life expectancy, governments should place a greater priority on these fields.