Health Economics

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Browsing Health Economics by Subject "Child health"

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    Household Economic Wellbeing and Child Health in the Democratic Republic of Congo
    (African Economic Research consortium, 2020-12-03) Kasiwa, Janvier Mwisha-
    Health is both a direct component of human well-being and a form of human capital that increases an individual’s capabilities and opportunities to generate income, and reduces vulnerability. It is argued that these two views are complementary and both can be used to justify increased investment in health in developing countries. Therefore, investment in child health constitutes a potential mechanism to end the intergenerational transmission of poverty. This paper examines the empirical impact of household economic well-being on child health, and the gender differences in effects using the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo, or DRC) Demographic and Health Survey conducted in 2014. A series of econometric tools are used; the control function approach appears to be the most appropriate strategy as it simultaneously removes structural parameters from endogeneity, the sample selection and heterogeneity of the unobservable variables. Results suggest a significant positive effect of household economic well-being on child health. However, the magnitude of the effect varies by gender of household head; children from households headed by males appear healthier compared to those from female-headed households. In the context of DR Congo, female-headed households often have a single parent, therefore, the economic well-being effect on child health in the male sub-sample can be considered to include the unobserved contribution of women. These results have implications for public interventions that enable women to participate in paid labour market activities as a means of improving household economic well-being, which in turn could improve child health.
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    Role of Maternal Education and Prenatal Care on Child Health in Cameroon
    (AERC, 2020-07-27) Josiane, Saleu Feumeni
    Child health is considered a key indicator of economic development and quality of life in developing countries. In this context, this study attempts to empirically analyse the role of maternal education and prenatal care on child heath at birth in Cameroon using the databases of the Demographic and Health Surveys of Cameroon of 2004 and 2011 (EDSC) collected by the National Institute of Statistics of Cameroon. We follow a two-step estimation procedure. In the first step, a probit for participation and a multinomial probit for prenatal provider choice, and a negative binomial model of the number of prenatal visits by mothers were estimated. In the second step, a structural birth weight equation correcting for sample selection and prenatal healthcare provider choice biases was estimated. The results of the estimates show that the mother's level of education, the choice of different health professionals and the number of prenatal visits play an important role in the health of the child. In particular, the probability of consulting doctor increases with maternal education and consulting a doctor correlates positively with birth weight