Information Communication Technology and Infant Mortality in Low-Income Countries: Empirical Study Using Panel Data Models

Issam Khelfaoui; Yuantao Xie; Muhammad Hafeez; Danish Ahmed; Houssem Eddine Degha; Hicham Meskher

doi:10.3390/ijerph19127338

Information Communication Technology and Infant Mortality in Low-Income Countries: Empirical Study Using Panel Data Models

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Jun 15;19(12):7338. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19127338.

Authors

Issam Khelfaoui¹, Yuantao Xie¹, Muhammad Hafeez², Danish Ahmed^{3

4

5

6

7}, Houssem Eddine Degha⁸, Hicham Meskher⁹

Affiliations

¹ School of Insurance and Economics, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing 100029, China.
² Institute of Business and Management Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan.
³ School of Finance and Economics, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China.
⁴ School of Foreign Language, Shanghai Jianqiao University, Shanghai 201315, China.
⁵ Department of Business Administration, HANDS-Institute of Development Studies (HANDS-IDS), Karachi 75230, Pakistan.
⁶ Center for Islamic Finance, University of Bolton, Bolton BL3 5AB, UK.
⁷ International Institute on Governance and Strategy (IIGS), Beijing 100000, China.
⁸ Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Université de Ghardaia, Ghardaia 47000, Algeria.
⁹ Kasdi Merbah University, Ouargla 30000, Algeria.

Abstract

According to the World Health Organization, lower-income countries suffer from adverse health issues more than higher-income countries. Information and communication technologies (ICT) have the potential to resolve these issues. Previous research has analyzed the theoretical and empirical causal effects of ICT on infant mortality at country-specific and global levels for a short period of time. However, the causes and results could be different in low-income countries. The objective of this paper was to examine the deficiencies through the use of panel data from 27 low-income countries from 2000-2017. We applied the predictive mean matching technique to supplement the missing data and then used panel data techniques (i.e., fixed effects (FE) and pooled common correlated effects (PCCE)), and system-GMM to estimate the causal effects. We compared the consistency and the possible heterogeneity of previous results using a set of robust techniques and empirical tests. We found that internet access and, to a lesser extent, cellular mobile subscriptions, two of the three ICT variables used in our research, had a significant positive effect on reducing infant mortality in low-income countries. In conclusion, governments and policymakers of low-income countries should consider the availability of internet-related ICT innovations and make them nationally accessible to reduce health crises such as the infant mortality rate.

Keywords: Driscol–Kraay; ICT; PMM; health; infant mortality; instrumental variables IV; low-income countries; panel regression; pooled common correlated effects PCCE.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Communication
Developing Countries
Humans
Infant
Infant Mortality*
Information Technology*
Poverty
Technology

Grants and funding

This research was funded by The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in UIBE, grant number CXTD9−04 and by the Huiyuan Outstanding Young Scholars, Analysis on the welfare effect of endowment insurance from the perspective of actuarial, in UIBE grant number 21JQ07.