The Impact of ICT Development on Health Outcomes in Africa: Does Economic Freedom Matter?
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The Impact of ICT Development on Health Outcomes in Africa: Does Economic Freedom Matter? Jeffrey Kouton 1
& Rafiou
R. Bétila 1 & Moïse Lawin 1
Received: 1 June 2020 / Accepted: 30 August 2020/ # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract This study aims to (i) examine the role of economic freedom in ICT diffusion in Africa and (ii) examine how economic freedom complements ICT development to influence health outcomes in thirty-five (35) African countries for the period 2000–2016. Health outcome is measured by the under-five mortality, an ICT development index is constructed, and the Index of Economic Freedom of the Heritage Foundation is used. First, the results show that economic freedom is necessary for ICT diffusion, but the mechanism generating the diffusion effect is not valid beyond 2 consecutive years. Second, the net effect on under-five mortality is negative from the complementarity between economic freedom and ICT development. Overall, the results suggest that economic freedom matters in the relationship between ICT development and health outcomes by playing a critical role in enhancing ICT diffusion. Keywords Information Communication Technologies . Economic freedom . Health
outcomes JEL C33 . I12 . O33 . O55
Introduction The importance and role of health in development are recognized at all levels of strategic decision-making, notably successively by the millennium development goals (goals 4, 5, and 61) and then by the sustainable development goals (goal 3: good health and well-
1 Goal 4: reduce mortality of children under 5 years of age; goal 5: improve maternal health; goal 6: combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.
* Jeffrey Kouton [email protected]
1
Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Statistique et d’Economie Appliquée, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
Journal of the Knowledge Economy
being). According to the United Nations, the objective of promoting good health and wellbeing is to “enable people to lead healthy lives and promote the well-being of all people at all ages” in order to build a prosperous society. A prosperous society would then be the result of the efforts of an effective and efficient health sector leading to high life expectancy, reduced infant, maternal, and neonatal mortality rates, etc. In Africa in particular, the health sector faces multiple constraints and challenges, including human resource constraints, inefficient health spending, investment in expensive health systems, and low technology use (Shekar and Otto 2014). Indeed, according to Shekar and Otto (2014), while African countries spend and invest a lot on health services delivery, about 20 to 40% of healthcare resources are wasted due to inefficiency (WHO 2010). However, the absence of an efficient health system does not allow for the achievement of expected health outcomes. The lack of efficiency faced by the African health system is related to technical efficiency (high health outcomes obtained from a given level of inputs (means or resources)), economic efficiency (minimiz
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