Does Trade Openness and Environmental Quality Matter for Health Status? Evidence from African Countries

This paper examines the nexus between trade openness, CO2 emissions, and health status using the simultaneous equation method on 49 African countries during the period 1990-2019. We were motivated by the fact that no study has examined simultaneously these relationships using three measures of health. Health status was measured by total life expectancy at birth, infant mortality rate, and under five mortality rate. Our findings show that trade openness has a positive and significant effect on CO2 emissions, and as results, CO2 emissions have a positive association with infant mortality and the under five mortality rate, while CO2 emissions have a negative association with life expectancy. We find also that an increase in trade volume influences positively the infant mortality and the under five mortality rate. However, trade openness has a negative and a significant influence on life expectancy. The empirical findings suggest that the governments of African countries should modify and ameliorate the environmental laws in order to improve individual health.