Three essays on the economic determinants of health outcomes in Canada

The second chapter of the thesis uses survey data from the National Population Health Survey to study whether health care expenditures have an impact on health status. Our results show that provincial health care expenditures on care facilities are associated with a better health status.;The fourth chapter tries to establish whether a link exists between social programs, economic conditions and provincial suicide rates. We find that different factors affect suicide rates across genders and age groups but little evidence of a systematic link between social and economic conditions, and suicide. This finding is in line with the existing literature.;The third chapter uses the same data sources to estimate the relationship between per capita supply of physicians, both general practitioners and specialists, and health status. We find that a higher supply of specialists is correlated with worse health outcomes, while a higher supply of general practitioners is correlated with better health.