Introduction:

The disparate empirical evidence related with the effect of public expenditure on health may be due to the significant methodological variations of the studies, as well as the significant differences in the way in which public expenditure influences depending on the level of development of the countries.

Objective:

To determine the relation among the total public expenditure of the General Government, and infant mortality and life expectancy.

Methods:

Research project carried out with a sample of 78 countries segmented by income levels from 1990 to 2012. By means of a non - hierarchical grouping of k - media, five sub-samples of countries were formed and divided by their income level. The origin of the segmentation was verified by means of the Chow test. Linear GLS and a cointegration test were applied on each subsample.

Results:

In the upper subsamples at the income level, health was significantly and consistently related to public expenditure. However, in the lower-low income countries, the expenditure coefficient showed a sign opposite to that expected.

Conclusions:

There is evidence of a positive and long-term impact among public expenditure and the health situation. However, for lower income countries, this seems to have surpassed its optimum point, which would indicate its inefficiency in sanitary terms. It is conjectured that this is due to the low institutional capacity of these countries, which hampers that greater expenditure obtains better sanitary results.

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