The financial crisis and its effects on people's health in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

The financial crisis hit the world during the years of 2008 and 2009. This crisis led to severe financial consequences in mostly North America, Europe but also in Sub-Saharan Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa already had healthcare difficulties, low standard of living and were sensitive to shocks. The question to answer was therefore whether Sub-Saharan Africa's people’s health was affected by the economic shock that the financial crisis was. The GDP decrease was bigger in the Eastern- and Southern Africa compared to Western- and Central Africa. This paper is testing if the financial crisis had an impact on HIV, suicide mortality or infant mortality on aforementioned regions where GDP decreased during the crisis by doing an interaction model, which is similar to difference-in-difference regression. Few studies have been found investigating this area.

The results were not significant for any of the three health factors studied, which makes it difficult to say anything about how the health effects differed between the Eastern- and Southern Africa and Western- and Central Africa. Together with Sindzingres’ analyses of the poverty trap could a conclusion be made, suggesting that the effects differed between countries, depending on how vulnerable they are and which uncertainties they have when being exposed to shocks.