Health and economic growth across Sub Saharan Africa: the unobserved role of demography

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Frimpong, R.M., 2022. Health and economic growth across Sub Saharan Africa: the unobserved role of demography. PhD, Nottingham Trent University.

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Abstract

This thesis revisits the debate on the impact health has on economic growth. The majority of previous work on the subject have focused on how health affects growth in developed countries and developing countries outside Africa. However, Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) is where insights into this relationship are most of value as the continent of Africa bears one quarter of the overall global disease burden, with 69% of deaths in SSA resulting from infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS and malaria. Of the 37.4 million people living with HIV globally, 25 million live in Africa (World Economic Forum, 2019). Waage et al. (2015) suggests that achieving health and wellbeing for all can only be accomplished if poverty is reduced. These two objectives poverty reduction and good health and wellbeing for all are in line with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1 and 3. The critical nature of health and its resulting effect on growth makes it essential to find ways of improving the state of health in developing countries.

This thesis provides insights into the direct and indirect role played by health in conjunction with other factors, through the process of economic development in Sub Saharan Africa. This is vital because the realisation of strategies that are intended to improve health depends not only on understanding the economic context but also on the understanding of the epidemiological and the sociological environment. Chapters in this thesis therefore considers some of the factors that have been highlighted as important influences on the health-growth relationship, but not fully explored in the Sub Saharan African context. These include diseases load, the demographic transition, geographical variation, and causal channels through which population health affects economic development. Policy makers as well as researchers undertaking further empirical investigation into health and growth in developing countries will benefit from the contribution of knowledge this thesis provides.

Item Type:	Thesis
Creators:	Frimpong, R.M.
Date:	October 2022
Rights:	The copyright in this work is held by the author. You may copy up to 5% of this work for private study, or personal, non-commercial research. Any re-use of the information contained within this document should be fully referenced, quoting the author, title, university, degree level and pagination. Queries or requests for any other use, or if a more substantial copy is required, should be directed to the author.
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	14 Feb 2023 11:10
Last Modified:	14 Feb 2023 11:10
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/48282