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Health expenditure and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: An empirical investigation

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dc.contributor.author Odhiambo, Nicholas M
dc.date.accessioned 2022-05-17T09:58:44Z
dc.date.available 2022-05-17T09:58:44Z
dc.date.issued 2021-11
dc.identifier.uri https://hdl.handle.net/10500/28863
dc.description.abstract In this study, the causal relationship between health expenditure and economic growth is examined using panel data from sub-Saharan African countries for the period 2008-2017. The study decomposes health expenditure into two components: public health expenditure and private health expenditure. In order to establish whether the causal relationship between health expenditure and economic growth depends on a country’s level of income, the study divides the studied countries into two groups: low-income countries and middle-income countries. In order to address the omission-of-variable bias, which is associated with some of the previous studies, the study incorporates life expectancy as an intermittent variable between health expenditure and economic growth – thereby creating a system of multivariate equations. Using a panel ECM-based Granger-causality model, the study found that when public expenditure is used as a proxy, a distinct unidirectional causality from health expenditure to economic growth is found to prevail in low-income countries, but no causality is found to exist in middle-income countries. However, when private health expenditure is used, a short-run causality from economic growth to health expenditure is found to prevail in middle-income countries, but no causality is found to exist in low-income countries. Policy implications are discussed. en
dc.language.iso en en
dc.subject Health Expenditure; Economic Growth; Sub-Saharan Africa; Panel Granger Causality en
dc.title Health expenditure and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: An empirical investigation en
dc.type Working Paper en
dc.description.department Colleges of Economic and Management Sciences en


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