Asymmetric Effects of Human Health Capital on Economic Growth in China: An Empirical Investigation Based on the NARDL Model

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

1.      What is the main question addressed by the research?

There is a goal in the abstract, but there are no hypotheses (research questions), they are in the further part of the article, they should be repeated a abstract.

The research hypothesis adopted in the work is:

H1: Health expenditure has an asymmetric impact on economic growth in the long and short term

2.      Do you consider the topic original or relevant in the field? Does it
address a specific gap in the field?

Despite numerous studies on human capital, the problem of human capital related to the level of health is still rarely discussed in the literature, which is why it is interesting.

However, the reviewer's doubts are raised by the results obtained as a result of the conducted analyzes (decrease in GDP by 7.48% per capita).

The results seem to be unreliable, especially since there are reports in the literature that human capital as a whole (health, education, culture, social relations) generates a few percent increase in GDP. The achieved results of GDP growth caused by health human capital, due to their surprising result, must be subjected to a solid literature discussion.

3.      What does it add to the subject area compared with other published
material?

The article fills the research gap related to the relationship between health and human capital. The authors try to determine the impact of the level of health on the level of GDP, but the results obtained as a result of the conducted analyzes raise reservations. Therefore, they require a solid explanation related to literature reports.

4.      What specific improvements should the authors consider regarding the
methodology? What further controls should be considered?

Analytical methods appropriate for this type of research were used.

5.      Are the conclusions consistent with the evidence and arguments
presented and do they address the main question posed?

"Under the impact of the global pandemic, human health capital is a basic factor for countries to maintain long-term economic growth and social stability and development." – in my opinion, this statement is quite imprecise, and this is because human capital is not only health, and secondly, the COVID-19 pandemic has only highlighted the problem of health human capital and has not contributed to its discovery, which may be suggested by the quoted sentence.

Text from lines 91-109 should be in the ending !!!

6.      Are the references appropriate?

The number of the cited bibliographic publications is appropriate and consistent with the current research issues.

7.      Please include any assitional comments on the tables and figures.

I have no objections to the figures and tables.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper titled "Asymmetric effects of health human capital on economic growth in China: an empirical investigation based on a NARDL model" is part of the special issue "Public Health and Sustainable Health Management" theme.

Human capital is a current topic, and its influence on economic growth is of interest in the context of the global Covid-19 pandemic and beyond.

The work is well-structured and relevant to the field of Sustainable Health Management.

The conclusions are consistent with the evidence and arguments presented.

The work is well referred to.

Observations:

• Table 1 should be explained who the PGDP is.

• Bibliographic sources can be updated to be more recent (from the last five years).

• In Figures 1,2,3, the names of the axes should be specified (possibly the units of measure).

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The topic covered in this paper is interesting and important.

The motivation is clearly explained in the introduction.

The literature review is well organized and is useful for the empirical exercise conducted in the subsequent sections.

The methods used are adequate and have some degree of novelty.

My overall opinion about the paper is positive. My main concern regards the interpretation of the results. In my opinion, this part (last section) could be stronger, namely through a closer link with previous studies on related issues.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

Title: Asymmetric Effects of Health Human Capital on Economic Growth in China: An Empirical Invedigation Based on A Nardl

model

ID: Sustainability-2292107

 

P1) in Table 1 (1,0000). Probablity value is up to 0.99. Probablity cannot take 1 value.

 

P2) Cusumsq test blue line is outside for 2019. This indicates that the coefficients you guess are unstable and that your model is not reliable.

 

P3) The introduction of the study is to indicate how Human Development affects economic growth in theoretical framework.

 

P4) This study is weak in terms of graphical representation.

 

The authors are silent in terms of the contribution of the study to the literature. The biggest problem of the study is the incorrect use of empirical methods. The findings of the study are inconsistent because the necessary assumptions are not provided and the article is not suitable for publication.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 4 Report

I find the explanations of the authors satisfactory. In addition, the authors seriously completed all correction requests from other reviewers and kindly took into account the four points I mentioned. Due to the efforts of the authors and the quality of the article has been greatly improved, I am changing my decision towards acceptance.