Does health aid reduce infant mortality? Cross-country evidence

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.

Keywords:

• ODA
• health aid
• infant mortality
• polynomial inverse lag

JEL Classifications:

• F35
• I12
• O50

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC Grant No. 71833003, NSFC Grant No. 72073091 and NSFC Grant No. 72103155) for the support.

Notes

1 As mentioned above, in polynomial inverse lag (PIL) framework, we set m = 9. Thus, the PIL terms cannot be formed in empirical analysis over the period 2002–2009.

2 As is mentioned above, since each variable has different observations, numbers of countries are various in Columns (1)–(6).

Additional information

Funding

We are grateful to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC Grant No. 71833003, NSFC Grant No. 72073091 and NSFC Grant No. 72103155) for the support.

Notes on contributors

Xiaoshan Hu

Xiaoshan Hu is Ph.D Candidate at Institute of World Economy, Fudan University. She is expected to receive her Ph.D in economics in 2022. She received her B.D (2013) in economics from East China University of Science and Technology and was visiting student at University of Copenhagen in Denmark during January 2018–July 2018. Her research is mainly about world economic development, with special references to inequality, poverty, urbanization process. Recent papers have been published in China Economic Review, Singapore Economic Review and many top academic journals in Chinese.

Guanghua Wan

GuangHua Wan is professor and director of Institute of World Economy, Fudan University. Professor Wan received his Ph.D (1990) in economics from University of New England. Previously, he was Research Director and Head of Poverty/Inequality Group, Asian Development Bank. Prior to ADB, he was a senior economist in the United Nations and taught in a number of Universities in Australia and China. As a multi-award-wining scholar on the Chinese economy and an expert on Asia, Dr. Wan has published over 200 professional articles and a dozens of books including two by Oxford University Press. RePEc ranks him among the top 5% economists globally and top 3% in Asia and China.

Tongjin Zhang

Tong Jin Zhang is associate professor of School of Economics, Tianjin University of Commerce. Professor Zhang received her Ph.D (2016) in economics from Tianjin University of Finance and Economics. The areas of her research have been on China’s economic development, with special references to inequality, poverty, inclusive financial development in China. Professor Zhang’s recent academic contributions have been to Singapore Economic Review and many top academic journals in Chinese.