Which Institutions Foster Health Capital Accumulation in Sub-Saharan Africa?

This paper identifies the institutional dimensions that are the most relevant to the improvement of health capital in sub-Saharan Africa. To this end, institutional quality measures are integrated into a health production model. Using data from the World Bank, this model is estimated by the Two stage least squares (2SLS) method on a panel of 45 countries over the period 1996–2018. The results show that the most relevant institutional dimensions that foster health capital development in the region are by order: rule of law, control of corruption, government effectiveness, voice and accountability and political stability and absence of violence. The results suggest that fostering these institutional quality dimensions is critical to improving health capital development in Africa.