本文應用共積理論,以預期壽命做為健康的替代變數，除考慮所得之外，並納入具有國家特性因素之醫療保健支出為解釋變數，探討台灣地區在1958年至1995年這段期間，預期壽命與經濟成長的關係。本文的結果發現：(1)若不考慮其它因素，所得對預期壽命的影響效果為顯著正向關係；而所得對醫療保健支出之影響也同樣顯著為正。(2)同時考慮所得及醫療保健支出對預期壽命的影響時，所得與預期壽命之關係不甚密切，故雖然經濟持續成長，但若要提高國人的平均壽命，政府應致力於醫療保健支出的有效提供。(3)預期壽命的所得彈性及醫療保健支出彈性皆小於1，而若忽略醫療保健支出的影響，將使所得彈在高估。(4)預期壽命與所得之間存在雙向因果關係，而醫療保健支出僅單向影響預期壽命，所得則僅單向影醫療保健支出。

　　　　　This paper investigates the cointegration relationship between income, life expectancy and country-specific factor, with life expectancy and public health spending representing substitution variables for health and country-specific factors respectively. The empirical study is conducted over 38-year period from 1958 to 1995. The paper's main findings include the following：(i) other things being equal, the effect of income on life expectance and public health spending are significant and positively correlated；(ii) given a lack of any significant correlation between income and public health spending on life expectancy, governments should deliberate the effectiveness of supporting policies that increase public health spending to improve life expectancy；(iii) Income elasticity for both life expectancy and public health spending are less than 1, and as such, income elasticity tends to be overestimated without considering public health spending； and (iv) a feedback effect exists between life expectancy and income. Consequently, public health spending has a unidirectional causality on life expectancy, as does income on public health spending.