Does health aid reduce infant mortality? Cross-country evidence

IF 1.4 4区经济学 Q3 ECONOMICS

Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy Pub Date : 2022-05-13 DOI:10.1080/13547860.2022.2072608

Xiaoshan Hu, Guanghua Wan, Tongjin Zhang

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Abstract Does health aid help reduce infant mortality? Despite a growing literature, existing findings have no consensus. To investigate the relationship between health aid and infant mortality, this paper applies polynomial inverse lag (PIL) framework to panel data from 131 countries over the period 2002–2019, and focuses on the instant and long-term impacts of health aid on infant mortality. The results indicate that health aid can effectively reduce infant mortality and it has a greatest effect in the current year. More specifically, a 1% rise in health aid causes a 1.53% drop in infant mortality instantly, though the impact tails off over time. The results maintain robustness across specifications. Heterogeneity test shows that health aid’s benign impact is more pronounced in deep poverty countries. Finally, it is found that aid raises public health expenditure of recipient countries, leading to a better health care system and a lower infant mortality.

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健康援助能降低婴儿死亡率吗？跨国证据

摘要健康援助有助于降低婴儿死亡率吗？尽管有越来越多的文献，但现有的发现并没有达成共识。为了研究卫生援助与婴儿死亡率之间的关系，本文将多项式逆滞后（PIL）框架应用于2002年至2019年期间131个国家的面板数据，并重点关注卫生援助对婴儿死亡率的即时和长期影响。结果表明，卫生援助可以有效降低婴儿死亡率，且在当年效果最大。更具体地说，医疗援助增加1%会立即导致婴儿死亡率下降1.53%，尽管这种影响会随着时间的推移而减弱。结果保持了跨规范的稳健性。异质性检验表明，卫生援助的良性影响在深度贫困国家更为明显。最后，研究发现，援助提高了受援国的公共卫生支出，从而改善了医疗保健系统，降低了婴儿死亡率。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy ECONOMICS-

CiteScore

3.70

自引率

7.10%

发文量

期刊介绍： Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy (JAPE) is concerned primarily with the developing economies within Pacific Asia and South Asia. It aims to promote greater understanding of the complex factors that have influenced and continue to shape the transformation of the diverse economies in this region. Studies on developed countries will be considered only if they have implications for the developing countries in the region. The journal''s editorial policy is to maintain a sound balance between theoretical and empirical studies. JAPE publishes research papers in economics but also welcomes papers that deal with economic issues using a multi-disciplinary approach. Submissions may range from overviews spanning the region or parts of it, to papers with a detailed focus on particular issues facing individual countries. JAPE has a broad readership, which makes papers concerned with narrow and detailed technical matters inappropriate for inclusion. In addition, papers should not be simply one more application of a formal model or statistical technique used elsewhere. Authors should note that discussion of results must make sense intuitively, and relate to the institutional and historical context of the geographic area analyzed. We particularly ask authors to spell out the practical policy implications of their findings for governments and business. In addition to articles, JAPE publishes short notes, comments and book reviews. From time to time, it also publishes special issues on matters of great importance to economies in the Asia Pacific area.