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Health expenditures, health outcomes and the role of good governance

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Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between country health spending and selected health outcomes (infant mortality and child mortality), using data from 133 low and middle-income countries for the years 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2006. Health spending has a significant effect on reducing infant and under-5 child mortality with an elasticity of 0.13 to 0.33 for infant mortality and 0.15 to 0.38 for under-5 child mortality in models estimated using fixed effects methods (depending on models employed). Government health spending also has a significant effect on reducing infant and child mortality and the size of the coefficient depends on the level of good governance achieved by the country, indicating that good governance increases the effectiveness of health spending. This paper contributes to the new evidence pointing to the importance of investing in health care services and the importance of governance in improving health outcomes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada

    Marwa Farag

  2. The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, 415 South Street, Waltham, MA, 02452, USA

    A. K. Nandakumar, Stanley Wallack & Dominic Hodgkin

  3. Simmons University, Boston, MA, USA

    Gary Gaumer

  4. International Business School, Brandeis University, 415 South Street, Waltham, MA, 02452, USA

    Can Erbil

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  1. Marwa Farag
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  2. A. K. Nandakumar
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Correspondence to Marwa Farag.

Annex 1: List of countries used in the analysis

Annex 1: List of countries used in the analysis

List of countries used in the analysis

133 Countries

(Low-income, lower-middle income and upper-middle income countries)

Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Central African Rep,

Chad, Comoros, Congo, Dem Rep, Cote d’Ivoire, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea,

Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s Dem Rep, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali,

Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea,

Rwanda, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Tajikistan, Tanzania,

Togo, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Armenia,

Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cameroon, Cape Verde, China,

Colombia, Congo, Djibouti, Dominican Rep, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Georgia,

Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iran, Islamic Rep, Jordan, Kiribati, Lesotho,

Macedonia-FYR, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Micronesia-Fed States, Moldova Rep, Mongolia,

Morocco, Namibia, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Samoa, Sri Lanka, Sudan,

Swaziland, Syrian Arab Rep, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine,

Vanuatu, Argentina, Belarus, Belize, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia,

Cuba, Dominica, Fiji, Gabon, Grenada, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Libyan Arab

Jamahiriya, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Montenegro, Palau, Panama, Poland,

Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Seychelles, South Africa, St. Lucia,

St. Vincent & Grenadines, Suriname, Turkey, Uruguay, Venezuela

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Farag, M., Nandakumar, A.K., Wallack, S. et al. Health expenditures, health outcomes and the role of good governance. Int J Health Care Finance Econ 13, 33–52 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10754-012-9120-3

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