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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health

Sec. Health Economics

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1553039

Air pollution and life expectancy: the role of Education and health expenditure in china

Provisionally accepted
Yezhi Zhang Yezhi Zhang 1*Manshu Huang Manshu Huang 2Yanshou Zhang Yanshou Zhang 3Xuan Kong Xuan Kong 4Kunpeng Shi Kunpeng Shi 2*Bingcheng Zhu Bingcheng Zhu 1*
  • 1 Zhejiang University of Science and Technology, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China
  • 2 Zhejiang Shuren University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China
  • 3 Tongji University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
  • 4 Shenyang Ligong University, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Health is directly linked to SDG 3, "Good Health and Well-being," which aims to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all ages. Achieving this goal involves improving health outcomes, including increasing life expectancy (LEX) and reducing mortality rates. Therefore, the current study aims to examine the impact of Air pollution's on LEX, and the role of education, and health expenditure in achieving the SDG 3 in China from 2000 to 2023. This study utilizes the Auto Regressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. We use the Fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and Dynamic ordinary least squares (FMOLS) methods for robustness analysis. The results show that CO2 emissions and inflation negatively impact LEX, while education, health expenditure, and GDP positively affect LEX. Policymakers should prioritize reducing CO2 emissions through stricter environmental regulations to improve public health. Increased investment in education and healthcare, alongside policies that boost GDP growth, should be emphasized to enhance life expectancy further. Additionally, controlling inflation through sound economic policies will mitigate its negative impact on life expectancy.

    Keywords: Air Pollution, Education, Health expenditure, Life Expectancy, China

    Received: 29 Dec 2024; Accepted: 04 Apr 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Huang, Zhang, Kong, Shi and Zhu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Yezhi Zhang, Zhejiang University of Science and Technology, Hangzhou, 310023, Zhejiang Province, China
    Kunpeng Shi, Zhejiang Shuren University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China
    Bingcheng Zhu, Zhejiang University of Science and Technology, Hangzhou, 310023, Zhejiang Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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