Public Health Spending and Child Mortality : New Evidence from Developing Countries in Asia and the Pacific

The effectiveness of public health spending in improving population health is still an ongoing debate, especially for developing countries. This study does not only aim to contribute to this debate, it also attempts to understand whether or not results can be explained by the measurement of public health spending that is utilized. This study participates in the debate by employing three measurements of public health spending, utilizing Lewbel’s method to address endogeneity and maintain a large number of observations, and employing a new set of data on countries from Asia and the Pacific. Research findings show that public health spending is an insignificant determinant of child mortality for both infant and under―5 mortality rate. Three possible reasons are discussed to explain these results. Moreover, this study confirms that these results do not rely on the measurement of public health spending that is utilized.