Effects of Human Capital (Health) on Economic Growth in Africa: Role of Trade, Analysis by Gender Health and Income Level
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Date
2026
Authors
Essotanam Mamba
Afi Balaki
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
AERC
Abstract
The paper examines the effects of human capital (health) on economic growth by highlighting the complementary role of trade, the effect of women’s and men’s health on growth, and comparing the effect of health on growth in low-income countries (LICs) to that in lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) between 1980 and 2021 in Africa. The instrumental variables (IV) approach with fixed effects (IV-FE) is used to control for the endogeneity issue, such as omitted variables and error measurement. The findings reveal that health significantly enhances growth in Africa, but only in LMICs. Also, health of both male and female significantly increase growth in Africa. Furthermore, adult survival is more relevant for growth than life expectancy. Finally, the marginal effect (ME) of life expectancy at birth increases with the level of trade above a certain threshold; above the level of trade equal to 38.745 % of GDP this ME becomes positive and statistically significant. Also, the ME of adult survival growth rate increases with the level of trade above and below certain thresholds; between the interval 71.952 and 136.319, the ME of adult survival growth rate is positive and statistically significant. These findings imply that health improvements and better alignment of health and trade policies are needed to stimulate growth in Africa.