Dynamic spatial panel data models in identifying socio-economic factors affecting the level of health in selected European countries

The aim of the paper is to investigate the relationship between socio-economic factors and the level of health of citizens of selected European countries. Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) were used as the measure of health. The author applied dynamic spatial panel data models with fixed effects and spatial autocorrelation of the error term. The models were estimated using a novel, modified quasi maximum likelihood method based on M-estimators. The approach is resistant to deviations from the assumptions on the distribution of initial observations. The estimation of initial observations is a severe weakness of standard methods based on the maximization of the quasi-likelihood function in the case of short panels. M-estimators are consistent and asymptotically normally distributed. The empirical analysis covers the specification, estimation, and verification of the models.