Publication Date

2022

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Xia, Chaoxiong (Michelle)

Degree Name

M.S. (Master of Science)

Legacy Department

Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science

Abstract

This study investigates the role of health expenditure on health outcomes in West Africa countries. Using the Grossman theoretical framework, other variables that affect health outcomes were also examined. Sixteen countries of West Africa with yearly data spanning between the period of 19 years (2000-2019) was used in this study. The health outcomes examined include life expectancy and neonatal and under-5 mortality rates. The regressors used in the study include domestic government health expenditure per capita, domestic private health expenditure per capita, external health expenditure per capita, carbon-dioxide emission metric ton per capita, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), unemployment, GDP per capita, tuberculosis, fertility rate, malaria and carbon-dioxide emission from gaseous fuel consumption. The study used the mixed effect regression model. The study revealed that the domestic government health expenditure per capita does not have significant impact on life expectancy and under-5 mortality; however it has a contradicting effect on neonatal mortality rate. Domestic private health expenditure per capita has significant impact on life expectancy, and external health expenditure per capita has insignificant impact on life expectancy. With respect to the neonatal mortality rate, the domestic government health expenditure per capita, domestic private health expenditure per capita, and the external health expenditure per capita are statistically significant. With respect to the under-5 mortality rate, domestic government health expenditure per capita is statistically insignifcant; however, domestic private and external health expenditure are statistically significant. The study recommends that the government and the stakeholders in the health sectors should make conscious efforts to allocate more resources to health sectors to improve health outcomes. There should be more emphasis on access to health care facilities in rural areas given that a good number of the population in West Africa live there. The introduction and proper management of health insurance to enable proper private health care access will help improve the significant impact of domestic private health care.

Extent

53 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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