Environmental quality and health outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa- A panel econometric approach on the role of forest investment

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive statistics

Variable	Mean	Standard Deviation	Minimum	Maximum
Under five mortality rate	96.568	37.918	35.1	204.6
Life expectancy at birth	56.367	5.137	45.517	68.178
Forest	28.940	21.309	0.892	75.818
Forestsquared	1289.698	1550.187	0.795	5748.303
GDP per capita growth	2.558	3.543	−9.442	28.676
Inflation	6.812	6.169	−8.975	31.523
Out of pocket expenditure	40.639	21.919	3.307	76.877
Public health expenditure	27.978	14.044	4.064	67.859
Gross Capital Formation (% of GDP)	21.574	7.913	4.704	60.156
Export volume index (2000 = 100)	197.907	151.420	70.101	902.896

Table 2. Estimates of the effect of percent of forestland area on under five mortality rate and life expectancy at birth using the fixed effect estimator

Variables	U5MR Model Fixed Effect Coefficient (t statistic)	LEB Model Fixed Effect Coefficient (t statistic)
Forest	16.272(4.44)*	−3.709(−3.41)*
Forestsquared	−0.074(−1.60)	0.019(1.89)
GDP per capita growth	0.761(2.04)	−0.154(−2.39)**
Inflation	−0.180(−0.85)	0.016(0.45)
Out of pocket expenditure	0.056(0.19)	0.003(0.06)
Public health expenditure	0.514(1.70)	0.019(0.37)
Gross Capital Formation	−1.264(−2.13)**	0.157(2.66)**
Export volume index	−0.099(−3.44)*	0.014(2.91)**
Constant	−249.44(−3.66)*	131.94(7.22)*
F-statistic(Prob>F)	15.74(0.0000)	20.16(0.0000)
rho	0.998	0.998

* and ** denote significance at 1% and 5% respectively.

Table 3. Estimates of the effect of percent of forest land area on the under-five mortality rate and life expectancy at birth using the fixed effect estimator

Variables	U5MR Mode l Fixed Effect Coefficient (t statistic)	LEB Model Fixed Effect Coefficient (t statistic)
Forest	23.171(6.00)*	−5.815(−10.45)*
Forestsquared	−0.201(−4.97)*	0.045(7.73)*
GDP per capita growth	−0.145(−0.31)	−0.019(−0.28)
Inflation	−0.094(−0.33)	−0.008(−0.20)
Out of pocket expenditure	0.584(1.89)	−0.021(−0.47)
Public health expenditure	0.644(2.08)**	0.017(0.38)
Gross Capital Formation	−1.402(−4.93)*	0.184(4.49)*
Export volume index	−0.121(−5.21)*	0.016(4.77)*
Constant	−314.007(−4.36)*	163.764(15.78)*
F-statistic(Prob>F)	33.09(0.0000)	54.17(0.0000)
Rho	0.997	0.999

* and ** imply significance at the !% and 5% significance level respectively.

Table 4. Estimates of the seemingly unrelated regression model

Variables	U5MR Model Coefficient(z statistic)	LEB Model Coefficient(z statistic)
Forest	−1.846(−4.67)*	−0.111(−1.69)
Forestsquared	0.027(4.59)*	0.001(1.32)
GDP per capita growth	1.318(2.29)**	−0.216(−2.04)**
Inflation	−0.325(−1.19)	-
Out of pocket expenditure	0.829(6.64)*	−0.025(−1.10)
Public health expenditure	−0.426(−2.21)**	0.130(3.71)*
Gross Capital Formation	−1.206(−4.70)*	0.044(0.93)
Export volume index	−0.141(−6.53)*	0.033(8.49)*
Constant	149.869(11.24)*	49.017(20.15)*
Equation	Observations	R2	Chi2(prob)
Under five mortality rate	120	0.803	494.35(0.0000)
Life expectancy at birth	120	0.587	170.60(0.0000)

* and ** imply significance at the !% and 5% significance level respectively.

Table 5. Correlation matrix of residuals

	Under-five mortality rate	Life expectancy at birth
Under five mortality rate	1.0000	-
Life expectancy at birth	−0.6124	1.0000
Breusch-Pagan test of independence: chi2(3)	45.006(0.0000)

Table 6. Test for cross-equation constraints

Chi2(6)	55.68
Prob> chi2	0.0000

Data availability statement

Data used for the study is the World Bank World Development Indicators (2021) obtained from https://databank.worldbank.org