The Role Of Health On Economic Growth In Sub-Saharan Africa (1990-2011)

 

 ABSTRACT

This study empirically examines the role of health on economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa using a panel data from 1990 to 2011. The study employed a panel data analysis in which the random effects model was used to examine the relationships among variables. Each of the explanatory variables were tested for multicollinearity using the Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) which was not found among variables, and other tests such as the Hausman test which showed that the random effects model is the most preferred, the heteroskedasticity test which was also conducted using the Modified Wald test and found the presence of heteroskedasticity which was corrected in the model and the random effects test using the Breush-Pagan lagrange multiplier. The random effects model results show that health in terms of life expectancy has an inelastic and significant influence on gross domestic product per capita while in terms of the prevalence of HIV showed an inelastic but did not have a significant influence on gross domestic product per capita. Another important result is that economic growth had a positive relationship with gross fixed capita formation, secondary school enrolment and the prevalence of HIV while it had a negative relationship with total labour force and life expectancy. Thus, we conclude that although health in terms of mortality and morbidity had an inelastic relationship on gross domestic product per capita, mortality showed a significant influence while morbidity had no significant influence on economic growth in Sub-Saharan African.