Comparative Life Expectancy in Africa

McCarthy, F. Desmond ; Wolf, Holger

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: BLINDNESS;    CLEAN WATER;    COUNTRY CHARACTERISTICS;    COUNTRY PERFORMANCE;    COUNTRY SIZE;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-2668
RP-ID  :  WPS2668

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

For health outcomes, is poverty destiny?The authors explore this question for life expectancy inAfrica, where health outcomes are positively correlated withincome, but where the link is far from uniform. The keyvariables associated with good health outcomes (controllingfor health expenditures) are access rates - to healthservices, to clean water and sanitation, and to education,particularly for women. Health expenditure, either aspercentage of GNP or per capita, is not a good predictor ofhealth outcomes (endogeneity aside). The tenuous link amonghealth expenditures, health service outputs, and healthoutcomes suggests marked differences in the mapping fromspending to services and from services to outcomes. Whilefew conclusions can be drawn on the aggregate level, thepatterns raise questions about what share of publicexpenditure should be devoted to preventive as opposed tocurative measures, and the relative importance of sanitationinfrastructure versus traditional health care.