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  <Article>
    <Journal>
      <PublisherName>ajhe</PublisherName>
      <JournalTitle>African Journal of Health Economics</JournalTitle>
      <PISSN>C</PISSN>
      <EISSN>o</EISSN>
      <Volume-Issue/>
      <PartNumber/>
      <IssueTopic>Multidisciplinary</IssueTopic>
      <IssueLanguage>English</IssueLanguage>
      <Season/>
      <SpecialIssue>N</SpecialIssue>
      <SupplementaryIssue>N</SupplementaryIssue>
      <IssueOA>Y</IssueOA>
      <PubDate>
        <Year>-0001</Year>
        <Month>11</Month>
        <Day>30</Day>
      </PubDate>
      <ArticleType>Review &amp; Research</ArticleType>
      <ArticleTitle>Impact of Health Indices on Economic Growth: An Empirical Analysis of Regional Differences in Africa</ArticleTitle>
      <SubTitle/>
      <ArticleLanguage>English</ArticleLanguage>
      <ArticleOA>Y</ArticleOA>
      <FirstPage>0</FirstPage>
      <LastPage>0</LastPage>
      <AuthorList>
        <Author>
          <FirstName>Haruna Usman</FirstName>
          <LastName>Modibbo</LastName>
          <AuthorLanguage>English</AuthorLanguage>
          <Affiliation/>
          <CorrespondingAuthor>N</CorrespondingAuthor>
          <ORCID/>
        </Author>
      </AuthorList>
      <DOI/>
      <Abstract>Background: As a component of human capital, health has been acknowledged to play significant role in the development process of any economy. Improved health status enhances capacity and strength of the labour force thereby raising their work participation and productivity. This study investigated the impact of health indices proxied by life expectancy, mortality rate and fertility rate on economic growth in Africa taking regional differences into account.&#13;
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Method: The study covered 33 African countries which were selected based on data availability spanning from 1990 to 2017. Panel data estimation techniques in form of fixed effect and random effect models were employed. Also, to account for the regional differences in the impact of health indices on economic growth, regional dummy variables and their interaction with the variables of health indices were included in the models.&#13;
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Results: The overall results based on random effect estimates revealed that the coefficients of the interaction term between the variables of health indices and regional dummy are statistically significant in at least some, if not all regions. Specifically, life expectancy contributes positively and more effectively on the economic growth of Western Africa when compared to Southern and Central African region, while the reverse is the case in Eastern African region. Also, mortality rate has more negative effect on the economic growth of Eastern Africa followed by Central Africa and then Northern Africa. Finally, fertility rate was revealed to have more negative impact on economic growth in Southern Africa, followed by Western Africa, Central Africa and then Eastern African region while the effect is positive in Northern Africa.&#13;
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Conclusion: Therefore, in order to bridge the identified regional differences, the study recommends that governments of the selected regional countries should pursue strong health policies and programs in order to create preconditions for boosting the levels of health indices for increasing economic growth and development. This can be in form of increasing access to quality education, health services, and other social amenities by adopting “Free-Service-For-All” approach particularly on women and children who are more vulnerable. Equally, there should be rigorous commitment to create more job opportunities particularly through Public-Private-Partnership (PPP). Otherwise, improvements in health status accompanied by high unemployment will render the former to be ineffective in determining economic growth.</Abstract>
      <AbstractLanguage>English</AbstractLanguage>
      <Keywords>Health Indices,Economic Growth,Regional Differences,Random Effect,Africa.</Keywords>
      <URLs>
        <Abstract>https://ajhe.org.in/ubijournal-v1copy/journals/abstract.php?article_id=8882&amp;title=Impact of Health Indices on Economic Growth: An Empirical Analysis of Regional Differences in Africa</Abstract>
      </URLs>
      <References>
        <ReferencesarticleTitle>References</ReferencesarticleTitle>
        <ReferencesfirstPage>16</ReferencesfirstPage>
        <ReferenceslastPage>19</ReferenceslastPage>
        <References/>
      </References>
    </Journal>
  </Article>
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