How does FDI influence health outcomes in Africa?

While most developing countries are devising strategies to attract more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows, the effect of FDI on sustainable economic development remains debatable, with very little known on its health effects. Using data from 1980 to 2018 on 43 African countries, this study therefore, investigates the effect of FDI on health outcomes (life expectancy and the death rate) by employing the panel fixed effects estimator. The study finds that, FDI improves health outcomes even after robustness checks using different estimator and specification. The implication is that, efforts toward attracting more FDI into Africa as well as making optimum use of the advantages that accompany FDI, should be deepened given its health enhancing effects.