EDUCATION, DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH EXPENDITURE IN AFRICA: ESTIMATION OF CROSS-SECTION MODEL OF 39 COUNTRIES IN 2000-2005

This article analyzes the evolution of education, health expenditure and economic development in 39 African countries for the period 2000-2005, which shows that the low levels of health expenditure in many Africa countries are far from evolving to the necessary speed to meet the social demand. We find that the main causes of this bad situation are the low levels of economic development and the low levels of international cooperation to increase average years of schooling of population. We estimate a cross-section model which shows the important positive effect of the educational level of population on economic development and the highly positive effect of economic development on health expenditure in those countries. The main conclusion is that international cooperation addressed to improve health expenditure in Africa should devote a particular attention to human capital and help to increase the average years of schooling of adult population in the poorest countries.