# ICT, health expenditures, and healthy life expectancy: empirical evidence from the Sub-Saharan African states

## TL;DR

This study shows that health spending and ICT development in Sub-Saharan Africa are linked to longer healthy life expectancy.

## Contribution

The paper provides empirical evidence of bidirectional causality and positive effects of health expenditures and ICT on healthy life expectancy in Sub-Saharan Africa.

## Key findings

- There is bidirectional causality among health expenditures, ICT, and healthy life expectancy indicators at the panel level.
- Health expenditures and ICT development positively affect both HALEB and HALE60.
- The causal relationships vary across Sub-Saharan African countries.

## Abstract

Life expectancy (LE) is one of the most commonly used measures to describe the health of a population, which is crucial for achieving progress in economic growth and development. Therefore, identifying the drivers of LE is critical for designing effective health policies.

This article investigates the interplay among indicators of health expenditures, the index of information and communication technologies (ICT), healthy life expectancy at birth (HALEB), and healthy life expectancy at age 60 (HALE60) in the Sub-Saharan African countries over the 2000–2021 period by means of robust causality and regression approaches.

The results of the causality analyses reveal a bidirectional causality among indicators of health expenditures, ICT, HALEB, and HALE60 at the panel level. However, the causal nexus among indicators of health expenditures, ICT, and healthy life expectancy differs among the Sub-Saharan African countries. Additionally, the consequences of the regression analysis unveil a positive effect of indicators of health expenditures and ICT development on HALEB and HALE60.

The results suggest that both health expenditures and ICT development are significant factors influencing healthy life expectancy.