Assessing the Effects of Macroeconomic Variables on Child Mortality in D-8 Countries Using Panel Data Analysis

TL;DR

This study investigates how macroeconomic factors like health spending, inflation, and income influence child mortality rates in D-8 countries from 1995 to 2014, revealing a slight decline in child mortality linked to economic variables.

Contribution

It provides an empirical analysis of the relationship between macroeconomic variables and child mortality in D-8 countries using panel data methods, which is a novel application for this context.

Findings

Child mortality rate has steadily decreased in D-8 countries.

Economic variables such as health expenditures and GNI are stationary at level.

The decline in child mortality slightly undermines the MDG4 goal.

Abstract

This research analyses the axiomatic link among health expenditures, inflation rate, and gross national income (GNI) per capita concerning the child mortality (CMU5) rate in D-8 nations, employing panel data analysis from 1995 to 2014. Utilising conventional panel unit root tests and linear regression models, we establish that education expenditures, in conjunction with health expenditures, inflation rate, and GNI per capita, display stationarity at level. Additionally, we examine fixed effects and random effects estimators for the pertinent variables, utilising metrics such as the Hausman Test (HT) and comparisons with CCMR correlations. Our data demonstrate that the CMU5 rate in D-8 nations has steadily decreased, according to a somewhat negative linear regression model, therefore slightly undermining the fourth Millennium Development Goal (MDG4) of the World Health Organisation (WHO).