dc.description.abstract | In previous studies, health impacts of government and household expenditures have been
estimated independently. As a result, the complementarities of these expenditures in
improving health have remained unexplored. This thesis fills this gap by estimating own
and joint effects of public and private health expenditures on child mortality using
Kenyan household data supplemented with county level data. In particular, structural
linear probability models of neonatal, infant, and under-five mortality are estimated
accounting for potential biases due to endogeneity of expenditures and heterogeneity of
child health.
A notable finding from the empirical analysis is that the effects of public and private
health expenditures on child deaths depend critically on age of the child. In particular,
public and private health expenditures have no effect on deaths of neonates but
significantly influence the mortality of infants and children below the age of five.
In structural models of under-five mortality, effects of the interaction between the private
and public health expenditures are statisticaIly significant, suggesting that the
expenditures complement each other in reducing child mortality. However, after
accounting for the interaction effect, the separate impacts of the expenditures on
mortality are statistically insignificant. Thus, in controlling childhood diseases, there is
need for recognition that whereas the government should invest adequately to provide
public health services, households should similarly provide for treatment of nonimmunizabJe
diseases. More generally, there is need to design and implement policies
that promote synergy between public and private-health expenditures in the control of all
diseases. | en |