Is it economic growth or socioeconomic development?: a cross-sectional analysis of the determinants of infant mortality

Some recent studies suggest narrowly defined economic growth is the key to reducing the infant mortality rate. A host of new studies emerged in reaction to this assertion. These new studies emphasize the role of increased health expenditures in reducing infant mortality rates. Analyzing the infant mortality rate using cross-sectional data for provinces in Turkey, this paper first ranks provinces by their level of socioeconomic development, and then tests both linear and nonlinear regression models to explore the relationship between the infant mortality rate and the indicators of socioeconomic development. This paper contributes to the infant mortality literature by providing additional insights into the determinants of infant mortality using consistently measured cross-sectional data for the provinces within a developing country. Our findings indicate that per capita gross domestic product is a significant determinant of the infant mortality rate, but the relationship is not a linear one.