A quantile regression analysis of mediating impacts of institutions in environmental quality-health outcomes nexus in sub-Saharan Africa

This study examines the role of institutions in reducing a presumably negative impact of poor environmental quality on health outcomes, using a panel of 45 sub-Saharan African countries over the period, 1996-2016. The empirical estimation is based on the panel quantile regression estimator. The study established inter alia: first, the declining health status occasioned by environmental degradation resulted in low life expectancy, high child mortality and increasing health expenditure. Second, strong institutional settings are needed to reverse the adverse effects of poor environmental quality on health outcomes. Thus, the minimum thresholds of control of corruption, government effectiveness, regulatory quality and overall institutions that restore human age expectancy are -0.37, -0.59, -0.40 and -0.40, respectively. In the same order, 0.08, -0.18, -0.41 and -0.15 are needed for health spending, whereas 0.24 of control of corruption and -0.21 of regulatory quality are needed to minimise child mortality. Third, the net effects of interactions do not align with the hypothesised relationships. Finally, we acknowledged the importance of some auxiliary indicators specific to each measure of health outcomes. On the policy front, setting-up an innovative and sustainable agenda of green environment and clean growth seems critical to realising improved health conditions.