Health Spending, Democracy and Child Mortality in Developing Countries

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue IX, September 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

Health Spending, Democracy and Child Mortality in Developing Countries

Mongbet Zounkifirou¹, TOURERE Zenabou², Poutouochi Mongapna Arouna^3
1Ph.D. Candidate, Faculty of Economics and Management/University of Yaoundé II, Cameroon, Corresponding author:
²Lecturer & Researcher / University of Douala (Cameroon)
³Researcher Assistant/ Ministry of Scientific Research and Innovation / National Centre for Education (Cameroon)

Abstract: This paper assesses the impact of health spending on child mortality in the developing countries, taking into account the role of democracy. We use the two-stage dynamic panel generalized method of moments. Our sample covers 126 countries over the period 1995-2017. Our main results show that health expenditure is negatively and significantly associated with child mortality. However, when we take into account democracy, regionalization and the income level, we find that, health expenditure has a negative and significant effect on child mortality only in the upper-middle-income countries and Sub-saharan Africa. Elsewhere, it is in the countries of Eurasia, North Africa, and Latin America that a significant reduction in the child mortality rate takes place in the presence of democratic institutions; to this must be added the least developed countries. For example, respect for civil liberties, control of government by a democratically elected parliament, combined with spending on health care, contribute to a significant decrease in child mortality. The results of this study are an important issue for policymakers, providing them with a kind of theoretical and empirical argument presenting health expenditure as a major determinant in public health policy. Thus, in their fight against child mortality, it is in the interest of governments in developing countries to improve not only the quality of their health spending but also, and above all, their institutional framework, especially democratic governance.

Keywords: Health Spending, Democracy, Child Mortality, Developing Countries

I. INTRODUCTION

The importance of the child mortality rate as an indicator of human health and development was first recognized and highlighted on the international agenda in the early 2000s, with its inclusion in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which had a target date of 2015. For example, global under-five mortality was to be reduced from 93 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 31 in 2015, but the targets differed considerably within and across countries. Indeed, child mortality is associated with various factors such as maternal health, quality and access to medical care, socioeconomic conditions, and public health practices (Dhrif, 2018) and its reduction is nowadays considered as the ultimate goal of governments in public health policy.

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