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Life expectancy in West African countries: Evidence of convergence and catching up with the north

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  • Yaya OlaOluwa S.

    (Economic and Financial Statistics Unit, Department of Statistics, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria & Honorary Research Fellow, ILMA University, Karachi, Pakistan)

  • Otekunrin Oluwaseun A.

    (Statistical Design of Investigations Unit, Department of Statistics, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria)

  • Ogbonna Ahamuefula E.

    (Economic and Financial Statistics Unit, Department of Statistics, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria & Centre for Econometric and Allied Research, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria)

Abstract

The article aims to investigate the possibility of the convergence and catching up of life expectancy values observed in West African countries with those noted in North African countries. Following the theory of time series convergence, documented in Bernard and Durlauf (1996) and Greasley and Oxley (1997), more robust unit root tests, based on the Fourier nonlinearity and instantaneous breaks proposed in Furuoka (2017), are used in investigating the convergence of each pair of a West African country and its North African counterpart. As no unit root in the differences of the pairs implies convergence, the results obtained by means of the new statistical approach quite outperform those produced by classical unit root tests. The results provide general evidence of the convergence of life expectancy values recorded in West Africa and North Africa.

Suggested Citation

  • Yaya OlaOluwa S. & Otekunrin Oluwaseun A. & Ogbonna Ahamuefula E., 2021. "Life expectancy in West African countries: Evidence of convergence and catching up with the north," Statistics in Transition New Series, Polish Statistical Association, vol. 22(1), pages 75-88, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:vrs:stintr:v:22:y:2021:i:1:p:75-88:n:6
    DOI: 10.21307/stattrans-2021-004
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    1. Perron, Pierre & Vogelsang, Timothy J., "undated". "Level Shifts and Purchasing Power Parity," Instructional Stata datasets for econometrics levshift, Boston College Department of Economics.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Africa; convergence; Fourier function; life expectancy ratio; nonlinearity; unit root.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C22 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes
    • C5 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling

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