Abstract
The objective of this study is to empirically investigate a two-way statistical relationship between the social health indicators and economic growth in the context of four major regions of the world i.e., East Asia and Pacific, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. To recognize the relationship between the two variables, a time series, co-integration and Granger causality tests have been employed. Aggregate secondary data pertaining to these four regions from 1975 to 2011 on economic growth and social health indicators i.e., infant mortality, child abuse, child poverty, unemployment, weekly wages, health insurance coverage, teenage suicide, teenage drug abuse, high school dropouts, poverty, out-of-pocket health costs, homicides, alcohol related traffic fatalities, food insecurity, income inequality, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, basic health units and rural health centers has been used for analysis. This study evaluates four alternative but equally plausible hypotheses, each with different policy implications. These are: (1) social health indicators Granger cause economic growth, (2) economic growth Granger cause social health indicators (the conventional view), (3) There is a bi-directional causality between the two variables and (4) Both variables are causality independent (although highly correlated). The empirical results only moderately support the conventional view that economic growth has significant long run casual effect on social health indicators in East Asia and Pacific, MENA, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The present study find evident of unidirectional causality running towards economic growth to social health indicators, although, there are some bidirectional causality also exists between the variables. The percentage of unidirectional causality between economic growth and social health indicators is larger than bidirectional or neutrality hypothesis.
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Acknowledgment
This work was financially supported by the National 985 Project of Non-traditional Security at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, P. R. China. Authors are thankful to the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions. Any remaining errors are the authors own responsibility.
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Akhmat, G., Zaman, K., Shukui, T. et al. Social Health Indicators and Economic Growth: Evidence from East Asia and Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Soc Indic Res 119, 663–686 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0538-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0538-x