Understanding the Economic Burden of Environmental Degradation on Health in North Africa

This study examines the links between air pollution, health expenditure, and state fragility in selected North African countries – Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia – from 2000 to 2017. Initially, the cross-sectional dependence and slopes of heterogeneity tests between the countries showed that the variables are cross-sectional dependent and heterogeneous. In addition, the data series are stationary with mixed integration order at the level and first difference after applying the unit root tests. The cointegration test was employed to examine the long-run relationship between the variables and identified a long-term relationship between air pollution, health expenditure, and state fragility. In contrast, there exists a lack of short-run relationship between the variables. Finally, the panel causality test confirmed the existence of unidirectional causality only from air pollution to the state fragility.