Income Inequality-Health Outcomes Debate in Sub-Saharan African Countries: How Important is Resource Abundance?

Abstract

This study assessed effect of income inequality on health outcomes in 29 Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, and exploring analysis further to determine if being endowed with abundance natural resources matters in either enhancing or mitigating effect of income inequality on health outcomes using data for the period 1996 – 2019. The study employed the system GMM estimation technique; “GINI” coefficient and life expectancy are utilised as measures of inequality, and health outcome respectively, while controlling for health system investment, level of educational awareness, health shock, CO2 emissions as a measure of condition of place, and global factors proxied by influenza. Country dummy variable was used to categorise countries as either ‘resource-rich” or “non-resource-rich’. Results show that rather than income inequality, environmental quality, education awareness, and health system development serve as pathways for transmitting effect of income inequality to determine health outcomes significantly. Secondly, being richly endowed with natural resources neither consolidates nor mitigates the effect of income inequality on health outcomes, therefore is not of utmost importance, so does not matter in inequality-health outcomes model.