The Shortage of Medical Workers in Sub-Saharan Africa and Substitution Policy

Arnaud Bourgain, Patrice Pieretti and Benteng Zou

DEM Discussion Paper Series from Department of Economics at the University of Luxembourg

Abstract: Substitution policies are strategies sometimes chosen in Sub-Saharan Africa for curtailing the shortage of health professionals especially caused by the outflow of medical personnel. The aim of our contribution is to propose a way to assess the merits and drawbacks of substitution policies by developing a simple growth model of healthcare productivity with medical brain drain. Within this framework, we use a medical care production function of the CES type which aggregates low and high specialized health workers. We then run simulations which compare scenarios with and without substitution strategies by using data from the Ghana’s medical sector.

Keywords: Medical shortage; healthcare policy; substitution policy. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The shortage of medical workers in Sub-Saharan Africa and substitution policy (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:luc:wpaper:08-13

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