IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/afjecr/274743.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effect of Public Health Spending on Under-five Mortality Rate in Uganda

Author

Listed:
  • Kato, Kepha
  • Mugarura, Alex
  • Keberuka, Will
  • Matovu, Fred
  • Yawe, Bruno L.

Abstract

Previous studies indicate that under-five mortality rates have remained stagnant and Uganda failed to meet the Millennium Development Goals target and hence unlikely to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. Although effective health reforms and programs such as the Immunization Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI), and Home Based Management of Fever (HBMF) and increasing health expenditure were undertaken since1990s, health outcomes especially under-five mortality rates have remained poor. Uganda’s under-five mortality rate has remained high that is 68 per 1000 live birth in relation to MDGs target 56 per 1000 live birth in 2014 .The MDGs assessment report by United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) shows that the low level of public health expenditure is a major factor determining poor child health outcomes in Uganda. However empirical evidence on the health expenditure and its effect on under-five mortality rate have remained inconclusive. Simple Ordinary least squares (OLS) method was used to investigate the relationship between public health spending and under-five mortality rate. The results revealed that recurrent health expenditure, capital health expenditure, women literacy rate and percentage of population living in urban areas are strongly associated with under-five mortality rate. The study therefore recommends that the government should increase health spending per capita in relation to the increase in population and increase accessibility to education for the girl child.

Suggested Citation

  • Kato, Kepha & Mugarura, Alex & Keberuka, Will & Matovu, Fred & Yawe, Bruno L., 2018. "The Effect of Public Health Spending on Under-five Mortality Rate in Uganda," African Journal of Economic Review, African Journal of Economic Review, vol. 6(1), January.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:afjecr:274743
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.274743
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/274743/files/166025-428039-1-SM.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.274743?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. Edward Bbaale & Faisal Buyinza, 2012. "Micro‐analysis of mother's education and child mortality: Evidence from Uganda," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24, pages 138-158, January.
    2. Farasat A. S. Bokhari & Yunwei Gai & Pablo Gottret, 2007. "Government health expenditures and health outcomes," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(3), pages 257-273, March.
    3. David Cutler & Angus Deaton & Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2006. "The Determinants of Mortality," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(3), pages 97-120, Summer.
    4. Mansour Farahani & S. V. Subramanian & David Canning, 2010. "Effects of state‐level public spending on health on the mortality probability in India," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(11), pages 1361-1376, November.
    5. Albert Okunade & Mustafa Karakus, 2001. "Unit root and cointegration tests: timeseries versus panel estimates for international health expenditure models," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(9), pages 1131-1137.
    6. Bbaale, Edward, 2016. "Breastfeeding and Child Health in Uganda," African Journal of Economic Review, African Journal of Economic Review, vol. 4(1), January.
    7. Sanjeev Gupta & Marijn Verhoeven & Erwin R. Tiongson, 2003. "Public spending on health care and the poor," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(8), pages 685-696, August.
    8. Sonia Bhalotra, 2007. "Spending to save? State health expenditure and infant mortality in India," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(9), pages 911-928, September.
    9. Gerdtham, Ulf-G. & Sogaard, Jes & Andersson, Fredrik & Jonsson, Bengt, 1992. "An econometric analysis of health care expenditure: A cross-section study of the OECD countries," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 63-84, May.
    10. Hitiris, Theo & Posnett, John, 1992. "The determinants and effects of health expenditure in developed countries," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 173-181, August.
    11. World Bank, 2015. "World Development Indicators 2015," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 21634, December.
    12. Banister, Judith & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2005. "China, Economic Development and Mortality Decline," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 21-41, January.
    13. Mark Berger & Jodi Messer, 2002. "Public financing of health expenditures, insurance, and health outcomes," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(17), pages 2105-2113.
    14. Barenberg, Andrew J. & Basu, Deepankar & Soylu, Ceren, 2015. "The Effect of Public Health Expenditure on Infant Mortality: Evidence from a Panel of Indian States, 1983-84 to 2011-12," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2015-19, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    15. Sarah Ssewanyana & Stephen D. Younger, 2008. "Infant Mortality in Uganda: Determinants, Trends and the Millennium Development Goals," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 17(1), pages 34-61, January.
    16. Kaushal, Kaushalendra Kumar & F Ram, Faujdar Ram & Abhishek, Abhishek Singh, 2013. "Public Spending on Health and Childhood Mortality in India," MPRA Paper 48680, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    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. Byaro, Mwoya & Mpeta, Daniel, 2021. "Secondary Education and its Effects on Child Health: Empirical Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," African Journal of Economic Review, African Journal of Economic Review, vol. 9(2), April.

    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. AfDB AfDB, 2007. "Working Paper 91 - Health Expenditures and Health Outcomes in Africa," Working Paper Series 2224, African Development Bank.
    2. AfDB AfDB, 2007. "Working Paper 91 - Health Expenditures and Health Outcomes in Africa," Working Paper Series 2304, African Development Bank.
    3. Kaushal, Kaushalendra Kumar & F Ram, Faujdar Ram & Abhishek, Abhishek Singh, 2013. "Public Spending on Health and Childhood Mortality in India," MPRA Paper 48680, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Noshaba Aziz & Jun He & Tanwne Sarker & Hongguang Sui, 2021. "Exploring the Role of Health Expenditure and Maternal Mortality in South Asian Countries: An Approach towards Shaping Better Health Policy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-14, November.
    5. Bienvenido Ortega & Jesús Sanjuán & Antonio Casquero, 2017. "Determinants of efficiency in reducing child mortality in developing countries. The role of inequality and government effectiveness," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 500-516, December.
    6. Subhalaxmi Mohapatra, 2022. "Health Expenditures, Health Infrastructure and Health Status in SAARC Countries: A Panel Data Analysis," Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers, , vol. 47(3), pages 205-216, September.
    7. Mohanty, Ranjan Kumar & Behera, Deepak Kumar, 2020. "How Effective is Public Health Care Expenditure in Improving Health Outcome? An Empirical Evidence from the Indian States," Working Papers 20/300, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    8. repec:dau:papers:123456789/7972 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Susanna M Makela & Rakhi Dandona & T R Dilip & Lalit Dandona, 2013. "Social Sector Expenditure and Child Mortality in India: A State-Level Analysis from 1997 to 2009," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(2), pages 1-10, February.
    10. Micheal Kofi Boachie & K. Ramu & Tatjana Põlajeva, 2018. "Public Health Expenditures and Health Outcomes: New Evidence from Ghana," Economies, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-25, October.
    11. Błażej Łyszczarz, 2018. "Determinanty wydatków na zdrowie w gospodarstwach domowych w Polsce," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 1, pages 137-157.
    12. Seher Sülkü & Asena Caner, 2011. "Health care expenditures and gross domestic product: the Turkish case," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 12(1), pages 29-38, February.
    13. Baltagi, Badi H. & Moscone, Francesco, 2010. "Health care expenditure and income in the OECD reconsidered: Evidence from panel data," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 804-811, July.
    14. Dhrifi, Abdelhafidh, 2018. "Health-care expenditures, economic growth and infant mortality: evidence from developed and developing countries," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), August.
    15. Marwa Farag & A. NandaKumar & Stanley Wallack & Dominic Hodgkin & Gary Gaumer & Can Erbil, 2012. "The income elasticity of health care spending in developing and developed countries," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 145-162, June.
    16. Gallet, Craig A. & Doucouliagos, Hristos, 2017. "The impact of healthcare spending on health outcomes: A meta-regression analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 9-17.
    17. Georgios Nikolopoulos & Pantelis Bagos & Theodoros Lytras & Stefanos Bonovas, 2011. "An Ecological Study of the Determinants of Differences in 2009 Pandemic Influenza Mortality Rates between Countries in Europe," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(5), pages 1-8, May.
    18. Tang, Chor Foon, 2011. "Multivariate Granger Causality and the Dynamic Relationship between Health Care Spending, Income and Relative Price of Health Care in Malaysia," Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 52(2), pages 199-214, December.
    19. Fiseha Gebregziabher & Miguel Niño-Zarazúa, 2014. "Social Spending and Aggregate Welfare in Developing and Transition Economies," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2014-082, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    20. Badi H. Baltagi & Raffaele Lagravinese & Francesco Moscone & Elisa Tosetti, 2017. "Health Care Expenditure and Income: A Global Perspective," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(7), pages 863-874, July.
    21. Hartwig, Jochen, 2008. "What drives health care expenditure?--Baumol's model of 'unbalanced growth' revisited," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 603-623, May.

    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:ags:afjecr:274743. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajer/index .

    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.