Search results

While several existing panel studies have focused on the linear specifications of the nexus between trade openness and unemployment, nonlinear panel studies on this subject remain less explored. This paper examines the asymmetric nexus between trade openness and unemployment in 34 selected sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries for the period spanning from 1991 to 2020.

The Pedroni and Westerlund panel cointegration tests were conducted to ascertain a long run relationship among the studied variables, while the panel nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag approach was applied to account for asymmetries.

The study revealed among other things that trade openness asymmetrically influences unemployment in the selected panel of SSA countries. In the long run, the positive shock in trade openness on unemployment is greater as compared to the negative shock.

The implications of this study include the need to (1) ensure the effective monitoring and supervision of trade flows in the sub-region so that their full benefits are maximized in terms of job creation and (2) ensure that a positive trade balance is maintained in the selected SSA countries.

The positive and negative shocks in trade openness are examined to determine their asymmetric effects on unemployment.

This study investigates the impact of total health expenditure on life expectancy in a panel of 43 African countries from 2000 to 2018.

The dynamic panel generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation method developed by Arellano and Bond (1991) is used in this study. This approach generates estimates that are heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation consistent, as well as controls for unobserved time-invariant country-specific effects and eliminates any endogeneity in the panel model.

The results reveal that health expenditure on its own has a positive significant influence on life expectancy. However, health expenditure via the moderating effect of government effectiveness reduces life expectancy. The authors also observe that school enrollment and the level of economic activity significantly drive life expectancy.

The study is limited to 43 out of 54 African countries, and it covers a period of 18 years: 2000 to 2018.

The authors argue that larger health expenditure will aid in improving the life expectancy rate in Africa. However, in practice, this would be difficult given the needs of other priority sectors.

Since most developing countries' health expenditures are small, a policy option is that healthcare services should be subsidized such that the poorest people can also access them.

The study differs from the previous attempts, and with this, the authors contribute significantly to the literature. First, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the authors are unaware of any study considering the role of government effectiveness as a moderating factor in investigating the effect of health expenditure on life expectancy in the African context. Thus, the authors fill a yawning gap in the literature. Second, the authors employ a recent dataset with larger sample size. Finally, to address the problem of endogeneity and simultaneity bias, the authors use the system GMM technique.