Health outcomes and the resource curse paradox: The experience of African oil-rich countries

Abstract

This study investigates the hypothesis that the abundance of mineral resources could translate to a resource curse for African oil-rich countries using the panel threshold model. Using three measures of health outcomes, namely life expectancy, mortality rates, and death rates, we find that the response of the health outcomes to resource abundance is very sensitive to the level of economic growth, whether or not interactive variables are considered. For the model without interactive variable, resource rents adversely affect health outcomes at a lower level of growth, while an improvement in health performance is observed at a higher growth level. However, the evidence of resource curse becomes substantially clear when resource rents and health expenditure are interacted to impact health outcomes as the adverse impact is observed regardless of the growth threshold level. Findings have important policy implications.