Heterogeneous Effect of Corruption on Life Expectancy Inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Sub-Saharan Africa is simultaneously the world's most corrupt region and the global epicenter of life expectancy inequality. This paper examines the heterogeneous effects of overall, petty, and grand corruption on life expectancy inequality across 41 Sub-Saharan countries over 2010–2021, using two-stage least squares and quantiles via moments regression. Corruption significantly widens life expectancy inequality, with the effect growing stronger at higher quantiles, indicating that corruption amplifies pre-existing disparities rather than creating new ones. Both petty and grand corruption independently deepen health disparities: grand corruption dominates at higher quantiles through macro-institutional channels such as budget distortions and elite capture while petty corruption prevails at lower quantiles through regressive barriers to basic healthcare access. Policy responses should therefore be differentiated: frontline informal payments reduction in low-inequalities settings, and institutional oversight reform in highly unequal contexts, embedded with a broader universal health system strengthening framework.