TITLE:
Health and Growth in CEMAC Countries: An Empirical Analysis
AUTHORS:
Guy Blaise Bouloud
KEYWORDS:
Life Expectancy at Birth, Public Health Expenditure, Secondary School En-rollment Rate, Mortality Rate, GMM, CEMAC
JOURNAL NAME:
Theoretical Economics Letters,
Vol.13 No.6,
November
17,
2023
ABSTRACT: In this article, we sought to verify the impact of health on economic
growth in the CEMAC zone, using life expectancy at birth as a variable of
interest. We chose to use the dynamic panel generalized moments method because
it provides solutions to the problems of simultaneity bias, reverse causality
and omitted variables. The results show that life expectancy at birth
positively explains economic growth in CEMAC countries. One of our control
variables, the death rate, is significant but does not have the expected sign.
Increased mortality promotes economic growth. This work establishes the mortality
rate as a source of economic growth in the same way as FDI or the secondary
school enrollment rate, among others.