Determinants of Life Expectancy in SAARC Countries: An Integrated Environmental and Socioeconomic Perspective

Abstract

Environmental health is one of the determinants of human health, where pollution and degradation of the environment are major contributors to lifespan and health care. Among the countries of SAARC, there are cause of concern patterns - high rates of urbanization and altered economics and poor health infrastructure- that act in combination to amplify exposure to pollution-related health risks. This paper questions the knowledge in the nexus between environmental changes, socioeconomic growth, and the provision of services to people in later life expectancy in the SAARC economies through the 2000-2024 period. The analysis explains bi-directional relationships (the long-run equilibrium) between the dependent and the independent, along with short-run dynamics, using complex panel econometric methods (which include predominantly cross-sectional dependence tests, cointegration tests, and the Cross Belgrano Augmented Autoregressive Distributed Lag, or CS-ARDL) framework. Ecological implications, empirical evidence indicates that carbon dioxide emissions, the Division of standard and ecological influence on life expectancy have shown a significant adverse impact in the medium and long term, and thus support the negative health impacts of environmental degradation. To the contrary, economic growth, urbanization, and the level of provision of sanitation services, health spending turn into statistically significant positive factors concerned with life expectancy, and undernourishment and unemployment remain as negative factors. The short-run outcome indicates that when growth increases faster, it has short-run returns on health, but the side effects of pollution grow in significance when the horizon is long. These findings guide the construct as multi-faceted as health determinants in SAARC, in which the economic and social policies engage environmental conditions in a non-linear way. Finally, the paper will argue that sustainable gains in life expectancy will necessitate coherent strategies that would entail not only managing pollution, reinforcing the health and sanitation system integrity, and mitigating food insecurity and unemployment, but also making the development patterns eco-friendly and inclusive.