Some Determinants of Infant Mortality Rate in SAARC Countries: an Empirical Assessment through Panel Data Analysis
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Some Determinants of Infant Mortality Rate in SAARC Countries: an Empirical Assessment through Panel Data Analysis Ujjal Protim Dutta 1 & Hemant Gupta 2 & Asok Kumar Sarkar 3 & Partha Pratim Sengupta 1 Accepted: 30 March 2020/ # Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract The present study is an attempt to examine the distal determinants of Infant Mortality Rate in South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations over the period of 2000–2016. Instead of looking at individual nation model, the study tries to develop a regional model to examine the determinants of infant mortality. Infant mortality is modelled as a function of public health expenditure, educational status of women, access to proper sanitation, GDP per capita and urbanisation. To attain this objective, we have applied Pedroni’s cointegration test. Subsequently, to estimate the long run relationship we have utilized the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) and Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS) methods. The results of the Pedroni’s cointegration test have shown the long run relationship among the selected variables. Similarly, FMOLS and DOLS test results have indicated that health expenditure, GDP per capita, educational status of women and sanitation facilities have a significant impact on Infant Mortality Rate of SAARC nations. The results of this study led to the conclusion that Health Expenditure is one of the significant contributors in decreasing the Infant Mortality Rate. Moreover, the results of our study shed light on determinants such as GDP Per Capita, Female Education, Urbanisation and Sanitation which have some clear policy implications for reducing Infant Mortality Rate in SAARC nations. Keywords Infant Mortality Rate . Determinants . SAARC . Panel data . Cointegration
* Ujjal Protim Dutta [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
U. P. Dutta et al.
1 Introduction Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) is generally outlined as the number of fatalities among children within the first year of their birth for every one thousand live births in the given year (Reidpath and Allotey 2003). IMR is a sensitive factor which is, directly or indirectly, influenced by a number of factors. The probability of survival is much higher in case of adults and elderly people as compared to the infants because their immunity system is not well developed which makes them susceptible to all kinds of illnesses and they are not developed enough to cope with the external changes. Due to this reason, factors such as the status of healthcare services, lifestyle of the immediate family, access to nutritious food and proper sanitation facilities have a major impact on IMR. According to Klinger (1985), infant deaths form a major proportion of the total deaths in developing nations in contrast to developed nations, where it accounts for a relatively smaller proportion of total deaths. UNICEF (2018) reported that in the year 2017, an alarming figure of 4.1 million infant deaths (within the first year of birth) w
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