Divergence of healthcare expenditure in sub-Saharan Africa

Jamiil Jeetoo and Vishal Chandr Jaunky

Studies in Economics and Econometrics, 2023, vol. 47, issue 1, 75-105

Abstract: The study examines the convergence patterns of real healthcare expenditure per capita (RHEPC) for 43 countries of sub-Saharan African (SSA) from the period 2000 and 2017. Conventional absolute and conditional β-convergence models are first applied. Several factors such as income, democracy, urbanisation and ageing population are found to significantly affect relative RHEPC (RRHEPC) within the conditional β-convergence model. The speed of convergence of RRHEPC is higher for the conditional β-convergence model than the absolute β-convergence one. In general, β-convergence and σ-divergence are detected while no support for the stochastic convergence hypothesis is uncovered. These neoclassical models impose restrictive assumptions that countries follow the same growth path. As such the dynamic distribution approach proposed by Quah is applied to analyse the dynamics of RRHEPC. This is followed by the club convergence test as proposed by Phillips and Sul which allows individual countries to follow distinctive growth paths. Both convergence tests point towards the existence of three clubs. In sum, we find strong evidence of divergence of RHEPC among the 43 SSA countries. Policy implementations based on model results are discussed while several aspects of policy reforms in the healthcare sector within the African continent are highlighted.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/03796205.2023.2185664 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
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:taf:rseexx:v:47:y:2023:i:1:p:75-105

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rsee20

DOI: 10.1080/03796205.2023.2185664

Access Statistics for this article

Studies in Economics and Econometrics is currently edited by Willem Bester

More articles in Studies in Economics and Econometrics from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().