The Effect of Public Health Expenditure on Infant Mortality: Evidence from a Panel of Indian States, 1983–1984 to 2011–2012

Using a panel data set of Indian states between 1983–1984 and 2011–2012, this paper studies the impact of public health expenditure on the infant mortality rate (IMR), after controlling for other relevant covariates like political competition, per capita income, female literacy, and urbanisation. We find that public expenditure on health care reduces the IMR. Our baseline specification shows that an increase in public health expenditure by 1 per cent of state-level net domestic product is associated with a reduction in the IMR by about nine infant deaths per 1000 live births. We also find that political competition, female literacy and urbanisation reduce the IMR.