The Determinants of Child Mortality Reduction in the Middle East and North Africa

Although child mortality rates have declined all across the developing world over the past 40 years, they have fallen the most in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. We investigate the causes of this through an econometric model that differs from previous studies in using the change in c...

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Main Authors:	Iqbal, Farrukh, Kiendrebeogo, Youssouf
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	en_US
Published:	Taylor and Francis 2016
Subjects:	child mortality caloric adequacy public health spending economic growth
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25331

id	okr-10986-25331
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-253312021-05-25T10:54:34Z The Determinants of Child Mortality Reduction in the Middle East and North Africa Iqbal, Farrukh Kiendrebeogo, Youssouf child mortality caloric adequacy public health spending economic growth Although child mortality rates have declined all across the developing world over the past 40 years, they have fallen the most in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. We investigate the causes of this through an econometric model that differs from previous studies in using the change in child mortality, rather than its level, as the dependent variable. We show that the process of child mortality decline has been characterized by convergence, whereby countries with higher levels of initial child mortality have experienced faster declines than those with lower levels. In addition, we find that public spending on health, growth rates of income and levels of caloric adequacy are robust determinants of the change in child mortality over time. Neither initial mortality status nor caloric adequacy is likely to remain as important for the MENA region in the future as they have been in the past. The region has been benefitting less and less from the convergence momentum conferred by high initial child mortality as its mortality levels have declined over time and this will continue into the future. With regard to caloric adequacy, the region is unlikely to experience significant improvements in the future as it has already achieved a high level of food sufficiency. Accordingly, most countries in the region must look to achieving more rapid income growth and higher rates of appropriately targeted public spending on health in order to achieve further child mortality reductions in the future. 2016-11-03T18:54:43Z 2016-11-03T18:54:43Z 2016-09-21 Journal Article Middle East Development Journal 1793-8120 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25331 en_US CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo/ World Bank Taylor and Francis Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research Middle East and North Africa Middle East North Africa
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	en_US
topic	child mortality caloric adequacy public health spending economic growth
spellingShingle	child mortality caloric adequacy public health spending economic growth Iqbal, Farrukh Kiendrebeogo, Youssouf The Determinants of Child Mortality Reduction in the Middle East and North Africa
geographic_facet	Middle East and North Africa Middle East North Africa
description	Although child mortality rates have declined all across the developing world over the past 40 years, they have fallen the most in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. We investigate the causes of this through an econometric model that differs from previous studies in using the change in child mortality, rather than its level, as the dependent variable. We show that the process of child mortality decline has been characterized by convergence, whereby countries with higher levels of initial child mortality have experienced faster declines than those with lower levels. In addition, we find that public spending on health, growth rates of income and levels of caloric adequacy are robust determinants of the change in child mortality over time. Neither initial mortality status nor caloric adequacy is likely to remain as important for the MENA region in the future as they have been in the past. The region has been benefitting less and less from the convergence momentum conferred by high initial child mortality as its mortality levels have declined over time and this will continue into the future. With regard to caloric adequacy, the region is unlikely to experience significant improvements in the future as it has already achieved a high level of food sufficiency. Accordingly, most countries in the region must look to achieving more rapid income growth and higher rates of appropriately targeted public spending on health in order to achieve further child mortality reductions in the future.
format	Journal Article
author	Iqbal, Farrukh Kiendrebeogo, Youssouf
author_facet	Iqbal, Farrukh Kiendrebeogo, Youssouf
author_sort	Iqbal, Farrukh
title	The Determinants of Child Mortality Reduction in the Middle East and North Africa
title_short	The Determinants of Child Mortality Reduction in the Middle East and North Africa
title_full	The Determinants of Child Mortality Reduction in the Middle East and North Africa
title_fullStr	The Determinants of Child Mortality Reduction in the Middle East and North Africa
title_full_unstemmed	The Determinants of Child Mortality Reduction in the Middle East and North Africa
title_sort	determinants of child mortality reduction in the middle east and north africa
publisher	Taylor and Francis
publishDate	2016
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25331
_version_	1764458981683625984

The Determinants of Child Mortality Reduction in the Middle East and North Africa

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