Social capital and access to primary health care in developing countries: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

Guillaume Hollard and Omar Sene

Journal of Health Economics, 2016, vol. 45, issue C, 1-11

Abstract: We test for a causal role of social capital, as measured by self-reported trust, in determining access to basic health facilities in Sub-Saharan Africa. To skirt the reverse-causality problems between social capital and basic health, we rely on instrumental-variable (IV) estimates. A one standard-deviation increase in trust is predicted to lead to a 0.22 standard-deviation fall in doctor absenteeism, a 0.31 standard-deviation fall in waiting time and a 0.30 standard-deviation fall in bribes. As a robustness check, we also use a different database regarding a different health issue, access to clean water. We find that a one standard-deviation rise in trust leads to a 0.33 standard-deviation rise in access to clean water. The variety of public goods considered provides insights about the possible channels through which social capital is converted into health improvements.

Keywords: Social capital; Health; Africa; Causality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D7 H4 I1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167629615001162
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Social capital and access to primary health care in developing countries: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa (2015)
Working Paper: Social capital and access to primary health care in developing countries: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa (2015)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:45:y:2016:i:c:p:1-11

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2015.10.004

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Health Economics is currently edited by J. P. Newhouse, A. J. Culyer, R. Frank, K. Claxton and T. McGuire

More articles in Journal of Health Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().