Are health care expenditures and personal disposable income characterised by asymmetric behaviour? Evidence from us state-level data

Resumen:
This paper examines the asymmetry (steepness and deepness asymmetry) in per capita health care expenditure and disposable income series in the 50 US states over the period 1966-2009, using the nonparametric Triples test techniques, together with the parametric Fisher-Pearson skewness test. The results suggest significant evidence of asymmetric behaviour (mainly, steepness asymmetry) in many of these series, questioning, thus, the adequacy of linear models when modelling the behaviour of these two series.