Do Socio-Economic Factors Contribute to Maternal Mortality in sub-Saharan Africa? Evidence from MDG Era and PMG Approach to Panel Data Analysis
Do Socio-Economic Factors Contribute to Maternal Mortality in sub-Saharan Africa? Evidence from MDG Era and PMG Approach to Panel Data Analysis

Summary/Abstract: The objective of this study is to provide robust evidence on the contribution of socioeconomic determinants to maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The paper covers the era of MDG (1990-2015) using panel data from selected 43 sub-Saharan Africa countries. The era was chosen to understand the interaction between the socioeconomic variables and MMR with the aim of providing a policy framework for SDG going forward. A model of Pooled Mean Group (PMG) was adopted in the analysis of data. For robustness, a panel cross-section dependence test was conducted for validity purpose. The PMG results showed strong evidence in support of the short and long-run elasticity impact of per capita health expenditure, female labour force participation rate, female employment and GDP per capita on maternal mortality in SSA. The study identified these socioeconomic variables as key policy instruments in reducing maternal mortality in SSA. Also, the results have important policy implications both domestically for countries in SSA with a high rate of maternal deaths, and globally, if the SDG-5 of reducing maternal deaths by less than 70 per 100,000 live births before 2030 can be achieved.

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