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Does economic freedom improve health outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa?

Author

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  • Anand Sharma

Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of economic freedom on four key health indicators (namely, life expectancy, infant mortality rate, under-five mortality rate and neonatal mortality rate) by using a panel dataset of 34 sub-Saharan African countries from 2005 to 2016. Design/methodology/approach - The study obtains data from the World Development Indicators (WDI) of the World Bank and the Fraser Institute. It uses fixed effects regression to estimate the effect of economic freedom on health outcomes and attempts to resolve the endogeneity problems by using two-stage least squares regression (2SLS). Findings - The results indicate a favourable impact of economic freedom on health outcomes. That is, higher levels of economic freedom reduce mortality rates and increase life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa. All areas of economic freedom, except government size, have a significant and positive effect on health outcomes. Research limitations/implications - This study analyses the effect of economic freedom on health at a broad level. Country-specific studies at a disaggregated level may provide additional information about the impact of economic freedom on health outcomes. Also, this study does not control for some important variables such as education, income inequality and foreign aid due to data constraints. Practical implications - The findings suggest that sub-Saharan African countries should focus on enhancing the quality of economic institutions to improve their health outcomes. This may include policy reforms that support a robust legal system, protect property rights, promote free trade and stabilise the macroeconomic environment. In addition, policies that raise urbanisation, increase immunisation and lower the incidence of HIV are likely to produce a substantial improvement in health outcomes. Originality/value - Extant economic freedom-health literature does not focus on endogeneity problems. This study uses instrumental variables regression to deal with endogeneity. Also, this is one of the first attempts to empirically investigate the relationship between economic freedom and health in the case of sub-Saharan Africa.

Suggested Citation

  • Anand Sharma, 2020. "Does economic freedom improve health outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa?," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 47(12), pages 1633-1649, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:ijsepp:ijse-01-2020-0008
    DOI: 10.1108/IJSE-01-2020-0008
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Marson, Marta & Migheli, Matteo & Saccone, Donatella, 2023. "Free to die: Economic freedoms and influenza mortality," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    2. Khavari, Sepehr, 2024. "Historical and Potential Policies to Influence Social and Structural Determinants," OSF Preprints t7mzy, Center for Open Science.
    3. Ofori, Isaac K. & Freytag, Andreas & Asongu, Simplice A., 2024. "Economic globalisation and Africa's quest for greener and more inclusive growth: The missing link," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    4. Muhammad Hussain & Farzan Yahya & Muhammad Waqas, 2021. "Does strong governance stimulate the effect of economic freedom and financial literacy on financial inclusion? a cross-country evidence," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-10, December.
    5. Isaac K. Ofori & Andreas Freytag & Simplice A. Asongu, 2023. "Economic globalisation and Africa’s quest for greener and more inclusive growth: The missing link," Working Papers 23/032, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).
    6. Marson, Marta & Migheli, Matteo & Saccone, Donatella, 2022. "Free to Die: Economic Freedoms and Influenza Mortality," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 202210, University of Turin.
    7. Chris Desmond & Kathryn Watt & Sara Naicker & Jere Behrman & Linda Richter, 2024. "Girls' schooling is important but insufficient to promote equality for boys and girls in childhood and across the life course," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 42(1), January.
    8. Anand Sharma & Vipin Sharma & Shekhar Tokas, 2022. "Institutional quality and health outcomes: evidence from the EU countries," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 11(2), pages 70-78.
    9. Çağatay KARAKÖY & Alptekin ULUTAŞ & Darjan KARABASEVIC & Salim ÜRE & Ali Oğuz BAYRAKÇIL, 2023. "The Evaluation of Economic Freedom Indexes of EU Countries with a GREY Hybrid MCDM Model," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(1), pages 129-144, March.

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