IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/129905.html

Relationship between Health and Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan African Countries: Examining the Moderating Effect of Institutional Quality

Author

Listed:
  • Titus, Agness
  • Sikiru, Babalola Jimoh
  • Suleiman, Purokayo Gambiyo

Abstract

This study investigates health-growth relationship with the moderating effect of institutional quality (control of corruption) in Sub-Saharan African countries from 2000 to 2022. Utilizing Driscoll-Kraay fixed effect regression with standard errors, the analysis addresses autocorrelation, heteroskedasticity and cross-sectional dependence. Empirical results highlight that while school enrolment and life expectancy positively impact GDP per capita, control of corruption does not have a significant direct effect. Gross fixed capital formation shows a minor negative effect, and labour force participation has a small yet significant negative impact. The interaction between health improvements and institutional quality reveals that higher life expectancy significantly boosts economic growth, especially when corruption is reduced. The study underscores the crucial role of control of corruption on health improvements and economic growth. Strong institutions are important in converting health improvements into sustainable economic benefits, indicating that improving institutional quality can amplify the positive impacts of health on economic growth. The findings emphasize the importance of addressing institutional weaknesses to fully realize the benefits of health investments in the region. These insights are crucial for policymakers aiming to foster economic growth through investments in health human capital and institutional reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Suggested Citation

  • Titus, Agness & Sikiru, Babalola Jimoh & Suleiman, Purokayo Gambiyo, 2026. "Relationship between Health and Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan African Countries: Examining the Moderating Effect of Institutional Quality," MPRA Paper 129905, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 11 Apr 2026.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:129905
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/129905/1/MPRA_paper_129905.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Romer, Paul M, 1986. "Increasing Returns and Long-run Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(5), pages 1002-1037, October.
    2. Mackenbach, Johan P. & McKee, Martin, 2015. "Government, politics and health policy: A quantitative analysis of 30 European countries," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(10), pages 1298-1308.
    3. Narayan, Seema & Narayan, Paresh Kumar & Mishra, Sagarika, 2010. "Investigating the relationship between health and economic growth: Empirical evidence from a panel of 5 Asian countries," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 404-411, August.
    4. Anke E. Hoeffler, 2002. "The augmented Solow model and the African growth debate," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 64(2), pages 135-158, May.
    5. Don Webber, 2002. "Policies to stimulate growth: should we invest in health or education?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(13), pages 1633-1643.
    6. Elias Dinopoulos & Peter Thompson, 1999. "Reassessing the empirical validity of the human-capital augmented neoclassical growth model," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 135-154.
    7. David E. Bloom & David Canning & Günther Fink, 2014. "Disease and Development Revisited," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 122(6), pages 1355-1366.
    8. Case, Anne & Fertig, Angela & Paxson, Christina, 2005. "The lasting impact of childhood health and circumstance," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 365-389, March.
    9. Selma J. Mushkin, 1962. "Health as an Investment," NBER Chapters, in: Investment in Human Beings, pages 129-157, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Robert J. Barro, 2013. "Health and Economic Growth," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 14(2), pages 329-366, November.
    11. Sudhir Anand & Martin Ravallion, 1993. "Human Development in Poor Countries: On the Role of Private Incomes and Public Services," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 133-150, Winter.
    12. Robert J. Barro, 1991. "Economic Growth in a Cross Section of Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(2), pages 407-443.
    13. Daniel H. Vedia-Jerez & Coro Chasco, 2016. "Long-run determinants of economic growth in South America," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 19, pages 169-192, May.
    14. King, Robert G. & Levine, Ross, 1993. "Finance, entrepreneurship and growth: Theory and evidence," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 513-542, December.
    15. Oana-Ramona Socoliuc (Guriță) & Nicoleta Sîrghi & Dănuţ-Vasile Jemna & Mihaela David, 2022. "Corruption and Population Health in the European Union Countries—An Institutionalist Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-20, April.
    16. N. Gregory Mankiw & David Romer & David N. Weil, 1992. "A Contribution to the Empirics of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(2), pages 407-437.
    17. Jude Eggoh & Hilaire Houeninvo & Gilles-Armand Sossou, 2015. "Education, Health And Economic Growth In African Countries," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 40(1), pages 93-111, March.
    18. Quah, D., 1990. "Galton'S Fallacy And The Tests Of The Convergence Hypothesis," Working papers 552, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
    19. Knowles, Stephen & Owen, P. Dorian, 1995. "Health capital and cross-country variation in income per capita in the Mankiw-Romer-Weil model," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 99-106, April.
    20. Alok Bhargava & Dean T. Jamison & Lawrence J. Lau & Christopher J. L. Murray, 2006. "Modeling the effects of health on economic growth," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Econometrics, Statistics And Computational Approaches In Food And Health Sciences, chapter 20, pages 269-286, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    21. Ben S. Bernanke & Refet S. Gürkaynak, 2002. "Is Growth Exogenous? Taking Mankiw, Romer, and Weil Seriously," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2001, Volume 16, pages 11-72, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Selma J. Mushkin, 1962. "Health as an Investment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 70(5), pages 129-129.
    23. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1988. "On the mechanics of economic development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 3-42, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Knowles, Stephen & Owen, P. Dorian, 1995. "Health capital and cross-country variation in income per capita in the Mankiw-Romer-Weil model," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 99-106, April.
    2. Hartwig, Jochen, 2010. "Is health capital formation good for long-term economic growth? - Panel Granger-causality evidence for OECD countries," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 314-325, March.
    3. I. Hakan Yetkiner, 2006. "Saglik ile Buyume," Ege Academic Review, Ege University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, vol. 6(2), pages 83-91.
    4. Jochen Hartwig, 2008. "Has Health Capital Formation Cured 'Baumol's Disease'? - Panel Granger Causality Evidence for OECD Countries," KOF Working papers 08-206, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    5. Ethem Esen & Merve Çelik Keçili, 2022. "Economic Growth and Health Expenditure Analysis for Turkey: Evidence from Time Series," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(3), pages 1786-1800, September.
    6. Hartwig, Jochen, 2012. "Testing the growth effects of structural change," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 11-24.
    7. Nadide Halıcı-Tülüce & İbrahim Doğan & Cüneyt Dumrul, 2016. "Is income relevant for health expenditure and economic growth nexus?," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 23-49, March.
    8. LI, Hongyi & HUANG, Liang, 2009. "Health, education, and economic growth in China: Empirical findings and implications," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 374-387, September.
    9. Dinda, Soumyananda, 2016. "Interrelationships between Social and human Capital, and Economic Growth," MPRA Paper 89646, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2017.
    10. MESSAILI, Moussa & KAID TLILANE, Nouara, 2018. "Essai d’évaluation de la contribution de la santé à la croissance économique en Algérie [An assessment of the contribution of health to economic growth in Algeria]," MPRA Paper 88013, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 18 Jul 2018.
    11. Alper Aslan & Angeliki Menegaki & Can Tugcu, 2016. "Health and economic growth in high-income countries revisited: evidence from an augmented production function for the period 1980–2009," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 937-953, March.
    12. Maria Klonowska-Matynia & Radosław Sobko, 2021. "Spatial Analysis of the Relationship between Health Capital and the Level of Health Care Expenditure in Poland," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(Special 1), pages 133-151.
    13. Stephen Knowles & P. Dorian Owen, 1997. "Education and Health in an Effective‐Labour Empirical Growth Model," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 73(223), pages 314-328, December.
    14. Bernard Sarpong & Edward Nketiah-Amponsah & Nkechi S. Owoo, 2020. "Health and Economic Growth Nexus: Evidence from Selected Sub-Saharan African (SSA) Countries," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 21(2), pages 328-347, April.
    15. Narayan, Seema & Narayan, Paresh Kumar & Mishra, Sagarika, 2010. "Investigating the relationship between health and economic growth: Empirical evidence from a panel of 5 Asian countries," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 404-411, August.
    16. Mine Yilmazer & Serkan inar, 2015. "Human Capabilities and Economic Growth: A Comparative Human Capability Index," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, vol. 5(4), pages 843-853.
    17. Yanliang Yu & Shahzad Alvi & Saira Tufail & Shahzada M. Naeem Nawaz & Michael Yao-Ping Peng & Nauman Ahmad, 2022. "Investigating the role of health, education, energy and pollution for explaining total factor productivity in emerging economies," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-7, December.
    18. Diego Romero‐Avila, 2006. "Fiscal Policies And Output In The Long Run: A Panel Cointegration Approach Applied To The Oecd," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 74(3), pages 360-388, June.
    19. Enrico Lovász & Bernhard Schipp, 2009. "The Impact Of Hiv/Aids On Economic Growth In Sub‐Saharan Africa1," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 77(2), pages 245-256, June.
    20. Gyimah-Brempong, Kwabena & Wilson, Mark, 2004. "Health human capital and economic growth in Sub-Saharan African and OECD countries," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 296-320, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O2 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:pra:mprapa:129905. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    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.