PUBLICATIONS

Articles

Lai, Gary. 2018. "Does Increasing University Enrollment Promote Economic Growth?" USV Annals of Economics and Political Administration 18(1): 78-91. http://www.annals.seap.usv.ro/index.php/annals/article/viewArticle/1041.

Abstract: There is no doubt that the demand for higher education is rising. This paper seeks to find out if a higher tertiary school enrollment lead to higher economic growth. The data that is collected and analyzed showed a very significant and positive relationship between the two in middle-income countries. This result can be applied to upper middle-income countries like China, Ecuador, and Russia as well as poorer, lower middle-income countries like Bangladesh, Bolivia, and India – all of which face unique development challenges related to higher education. Enrolling students in universities and vocational schools seems to lead to economic growth.

Lai, Gary. 2018. "An Initial Investigation and Analysis of Healthcare Expenditures in Hong Kong." International Journal of Healthcare Management 11(4): 363-70. https://doi.org/10.1080/20479700.2017.1412559.

Abstract: Hong Kong is a special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China, governing with a high degree of autonomy since its handover from British rule in 1997. Like its legal, economic, and political systems, it has a unique system of healthcare. But the determinants of healthcare expenditure in Hong Kong, for all their complexities, have not been studied in the literature. This paper will make an attempt at quantifying the effects of these determinants. The latest data is used from the World Development Indicators and local government bureaus, departments, and offices. Ordinary least squares regressions are run with a model, constructed from widely-used models, based on the gross domestic product, the unemployment rate, supply and demand factors of healthcare, and research and development (R&D). Significant coefficients are found for all covariates, depending on the specification. Infant mortality rate and R&D, moreover, have negative relationships with healthcare expenditure. The methodology replaces time-fixed effects as a proxy for medical technology with R&D expenditure in a non-panel dataset setting. Unemployment rate is rarely considered as a determinant, but is used in this model. Hong Kong’s healthcare income elasticity is 0.824, indicating that healthcare in Hong Kong is not a luxury good.