Child Mortality and Economic Growth in Bangladesh: Evidence from ARDL Approach

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue XI, November 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

Child Mortality and Economic Growth in Bangladesh: Evidence from ARDL Approach

Kazi Mohammed Kamal Uddin¹, Md. Farhad Hossain², Most. Shiulii Akter³

¹Department of Economics, Comilla University, Cumilla, Bangladesh
²Department of Statistics, Comilla University, Cumilla, Bangladesh
³Graduate student, Department of Economics, Comilla University, Cumilla, Bangladesh

Abstract:-Child mortality rate is the most important indicator of child health, nutrition, implementation of key survival interventions, and the overall social and economic development of a population. The attempt of the paper is to investigate if there any relation between child mortality and economic growth and the direction and magnitude of these relationships in Bangladesh by analyzing data from 1985-2016. For analyzing the time series data Granger Causality test and ARDL model is used. By Granger Causality test it is investigated if there have any relation between the variables and by ARDL model it is analyzed what kind of relation between the variables (child mortality and GDP growth rate) exists. Our empirical evidence reveals that there is a significant and negative relationship between child mortality rate and real GDP growth rate. So, it is concluded that the GDP growth rate increase as child mortality rate decrease.
Keywords: Child Mortality, Economic Growth, Life Expectancy, Bangladesh, Granger Causality, ARDL Model.

I. INTRODUCTION

The level of development of a nation depends on many factors which are accounted for the well-being of the population as well as the economic and social state of the country. The child mortality rate has been considered as an acceptable indicator of socio-economic development and a reflection of a country’s health care system and quality of life.
Over the past 25 years, the world has made a significant progress in saving young children’s lives. The rate of child mortality fell 62% from 1990-2016, with under-five deaths dropping from 12.7 million to 5.6 million. In order to prevent child deaths and ensure healthy child survival, reducing under-five mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births by 2030 are referred as the third Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

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