Does Environmental Degradation, Institutional Quality, and Economic Development Matter for Health? Evidence from African Countries

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of environmental degradation, institutional quality, and other macroeconomic variables on health using a panel data from 45 African countries over the period 1995-2015. To do so, the empirical analysis is carried out using the GMM method to solve the problem of endogenous variables. Findings demonstrate that there is a negative relationship between environmental degradation and health on one hand, and a positive relation between institutional quality and health on the other hand. Moreover, the direct and negative effects of environmental degradation on health may be decreased by the indirect and positive effects through institutions quality and macroeconomic variables.