Trade openness, population health status and health financing in Sub-Saharan Africa
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Date
MAY, 2016
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Abstract
Improvements in population health and health financing in SSA has been slow and
relatively poor when compared with other regions (Middle East and North Africa and
East Asia and Pacific) of the world. The study employed a balanced panel data for fortytwo (42) Sub-Saharan African countries over the period 1995-2013. Population health
status was measured by total life expectancy at birth, infant mortality rate and under-five
mortality rate. Fixed effect (FE), Random Effect (RE) and one step system Generalized
Method of Moments (GMM) models were employed in estimating the relationships.
The empirical results across all the estimation techniques show that trade openness
improves population health. Specifically, the results showed a positive and significant
relationship between trade openness and life expectancy, negative and significant
relationship between trade openness and infant mortality rate and negative relationship
between trade openness and under-five mortality rate. The study also showed a positive
relationship between trade openness and health financing. The study further found that
countries whose openness exceeds the optimal level of openness experience deteriorated
health and reduced health financing. The study recommends that countries whose
openness is below the optimal openness should continue to open up to trade to enjoy the
benefits of improved access to health products and medical knowledge spill over
Description
A thesis submitted to The Department of Economics, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of a Master of Philosophy Degree in Economics.