IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/hecrev/v11y2021i1d10.1186_s13561-021-00310-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Commentary: on the effects of health expenditure on infant mortality in sub-Saharan Africa: evidence from panel data analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Mwoya Byaro

    (IRDP, Research and Publication Unit)

Abstract

Background This commentary assesses critically the published article in the Health Economics Review. 2020; 10 (1), 1–9. It explains the effects of health expenditure on infant mortality in sub-Saharan Africa using a panel data analysis (i.e. random effects) over the year 2000–2015 extracted from the World Bank Development Indicators. The paper is well written and deserve careful attention. Main text The main reasons for inaccurate estimates observed in this paper are due to endogeneity issue with random effects panel estimators. It occurs when two or more variables simultaneously affect/cause each other. In this paper, the presence of endogeneity bias (i.e. education, health, health care expenditures and real GDP per capita variables) and its omitted variable bias leads to inaccurate estimates and conclusion. Random effects model require strict exogeneity of regressors. Moreover, frequentist/classic estimation (i.e. random effects) relies on sampling size and likelihood of the data in a specified model without considering other kinds of uncertainty. Conclusion This comment argues future studies on health expenditures versus health outcomes (i.e. infant, under-five and neonates mortality) to use either dynamic panel (i.e. system Generalized Method of Moments, GMM) to control endogeneity issues among health (infant or neonates mortality), GDP per capita, education and health expenditures variables or adopting Bayesian framework to adjust uncertainty (i.e. confounding, measurement errors and endogeneity of variables) within a range of probability distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Mwoya Byaro, 2021. "Commentary: on the effects of health expenditure on infant mortality in sub-Saharan Africa: evidence from panel data analysis," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 1-3, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:hecrev:v:11:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1186_s13561-021-00310-6
    DOI: 10.1186/s13561-021-00310-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s13561-021-00310-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1186/s13561-021-00310-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. World Bank, 2016. "World Development Indicators 2016," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 23969, December.
    2. Silles, Mary A., 2009. "The causal effect of education on health: Evidence from the United Kingdom," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 122-128, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Awadhi, Mohamed & James, Moshi & Byaro, Mwoya, 2021. "Does Institutional Development attract Foreign Direct Investments in Sub-Saharan Africa? A Dynamic Panel Analysis," African Journal of Economic Review, African Journal of Economic Review, vol. 10(1), December.
    2. Byaro, Mwoya & Mayaya, Hozen & Pelizzo, Riccardo, 2022. "Sustainable Development Goals for Sub-Saharan Africans' by 2030: A Pathway to Longer Life Expectancy via Higher Health-Care Spending and Low Disease Burdens," African Journal of Economic Review, African Journal of Economic Review, vol. 10(2), March.
    3. Kinyondo, Abel & Byaro, Mwoya, 2024. "The Link between Democracy and Development in Africa: What does Data tell us?," African Journal of Economic Review, African Journal of Economic Review, vol. 12(1), March.
    4. Hilaire Gbodja Houeninvo, 2022. "Effects of health expenditures on infant and child mortality rates: A dynamic panel data analysis of 37 African countries," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 34(2), pages 255-267, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martin Fischer & Martin Karlsson & Therese Nilsson, 2013. "Effects of Compulsory Schooling on Mortality: Evidence from Sweden," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-23, August.
    2. Tansel, Aysit & Keskin, Halil Ibrahim, 2017. "Education Effects on Days Hospitalized and Days out of Work by Gender: Evidence from Turkey," IZA Discussion Papers 11210, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Almeida, Alexandre N. & Bravo-Ureta, Boris E., 2019. "Agricultural productivity, shadow wages and off-farm labor decisions in Nicaragua," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 99-110.
    4. Dreher, Axel & Fuchs, Andreas & Langlotz, Sarah, 2019. "The effects of foreign aid on refugee flows," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 127-147.
    5. Iseghohi Judith Omon, 2021. "Migrant Remittances and Health Outcomes in the West Africa Monetary Zones (WAMZ)," Romanian Economic Journal, Department of International Business and Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest, vol. 24(81), pages 15-32, September.
    6. Markus Brueckner & Ngo Van Long & Joaquin L. Vespignani, 2020. "Non-Gravity Trade," Globalization Institute Working Papers 388, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
    7. Tanu M Goyal & Arpita Mukherjee, 2017. "Trade Agreements and Services Value Chain: The Case of India and Thailand," Applied Finance and Accounting, Redfame publishing, vol. 3(1), pages 11-23, February.
    8. Dorsch, Michael T. & Maarek, Paul, 2020. "Economic downturns, inequality, and democratic improvements," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    9. Elert, Niklas & Henrekson, Magnus, 2017. "Entrepreneurship and Institutions: A Bidirectional Relationship," Working Paper Series 1153, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 05 May 2017.
    10. Bachewe, Fantu Nisrane & Koru, Bethlehem & Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum, 2018. "Productivity and efficiency in high-potential areas," IFPRI book chapters, in: The economics of teff: Exploring Ethiopia’s biggest cash crop, chapter 7, pages 149-180, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    11. Pedro Albarran Pérez & Marisa Hidalgo Hidalgo & Iñigo Iturbe-Ormaetxe Kortajarene, 2017. "Schooling and adult health: Can education overcome bad early-life conditions?," Working Papers. Serie AD 2017-09, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    12. Van Houtven, George L. & Pattanayak, Subhrendu K. & Usmani, Faraz & Yang, Jui-Chen, 2017. "What are Households Willing to Pay for Improved Water Access? Results from a Meta-Analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 126-135.
    13. Martinico-Perez, Marianne Faith G. & Schandl, Heinz & Fishman, Tomer & Tanikawa, Hiroki, 2018. "The Socio-Economic Metabolism of an Emerging Economy: Monitoring Progress of Decoupling of Economic Growth and Environmental Pressures in the Philippines," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 155-166.
    14. Chen, Yuanyuan & Wang, Haining & Cheng, Zhiming & Smyth, Russell, 2023. "Education and Migrant Health in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    15. Daniel Croner and Ivan Frankovic, 2018. "A Structural Decomposition Analysis of Global and National Energy Intensity Trends," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    16. Simplice A. Asongu & Uchenna R. Efobi & Belmondo V. Tanankem & Evans S. Osabuohien, 2019. "Globalisation and Female Economic Participation in Sub-Saharan Africa," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 19/019, African Governance and Development Institute..
    17. Ji, Sisi & Zhu, Zheyi, 2022. "Does higher education matter for health?," Cardiff Economics Working Papers E2022/4, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section.
    18. Martin Gassebner & Jerg Gutmann & Stefan Voigt, 2016. "When to expect a coup d’état? An extreme bounds analysis of coup determinants," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 169(3), pages 293-313, December.
    19. Roula Inglesi-Lotz & Luis Diez del Corral Morales, 2017. "The Effect of Education on a Country’s Energy Consumption: Evidence from Developed and Developing Countries," Working Papers 201733, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    20. Van den Broeck, Goedele & Swinnen, Johan & Maertens, Miet, 2017. "Global value chains, large-scale farming, and poverty: Long-term effects in Senegal," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 97-107.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:hecrev:v:11:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1186_s13561-021-00310-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/13561 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.