Governments Expenditure on Health and its Impact on the Wellbeing of the Citizens: An Empirical Evidence of Ghana

Author(s)

Opoku Charles Akwasi , Liu Shizhu ,

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Volume 9 - February 2020 (02)

Abstract

The study aimed to assess the impact of the government’s expenditure on health on the wellbeing of the citizens in Ghana. However, the study adopted the human development index as the dependent variable to measure the wellbeing of the citizens. The independent variable used in the study is the government’s domestic expenditure on health. The study used secondary data available at World Development Indicators and the United Nations Human Development Index from 2000 to 2018. In order to achieve the study’s objective, some regression analytical methods were used for the analysis; they are ordinary least square (OLS), fully modified least square (FMOLS) and generalized linear model (GLM) as a robust check method. In conclusion, the study found a positive and statistically significant relationship between the government’s expenditure on health and human development; thus, the wellbeing of Ghanaians. In addition, the birth rate of Ghana has a positive relationship with human development, as was revealed in the study. The study recommends that the government should prioritize the health of the citizens in order to ensure healthy populace and workforce to be able to contribute to the economic activities of the country

Keywords

Government expenditure on health; human development index; birth rate; generalized linear model; fully modified ordinary least square; ordinary least square

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