This dissertation both theoretically and empirically examines the relationship between health and wealth, using proxies for health and wealth that are standard in the economics literature. We first model the endogenous interactions between life expectancy and income by modifying a standard overlapping generation model to allow individuals to directly choose their own longevity. The model displays a positive feedback between life expectancy and income that generates multiple stable equilibria. The worse equilibrium is a “poverty-trap” in which poverty and low longevity reinforce each other. The second portion of the dissertation is empirical. We first show that income has statistically significant effects on various proxies for health. The results are robust to different ways of controlling for the endogeneity of income: both instrumental variable estimation with external instruments and also generalized method of moments estimation when internal instruments are applied. We next directly test for the causal relationship between income and various proxies for health using three panel Granger causality tests. Evidence is found to support the existence of a bi-directional causal link. Sensitivity tests further suggest that middle-income countries play a more important role than low-income countries in explaining the overall wealth-health causality.

This dissertation both theoretically and empirically examines the relationship between health and wealth, using proxies for health and wealth that are standard in the economics literature. We first model the endogenous interactions between life expectancy and income by modifying a standard overlapping generation model to allow individuals to directly choose their own longevity. The model displays a positive feedback between life expectancy and income that generates multiple stable equilibria. The worse equilibrium is a “poverty-trap” in which poverty and low longevity reinforce each other. The second portion of the dissertation is empirical. We first show that income has statistically significant effects on various proxies for health. The results are robust to different ways of controlling for the endogeneity of income: both instrumental variable estimation with external instruments and also generalized method of moments estimation when internal instruments are applied. We next directly test for the causal relationship between income and various proxies for health using three panel Granger causality tests. Evidence is found to support the existence of a bi-directional causal link. Sensitivity tests further suggest that middle-income countries play a more important role than low-income countries in explaining the overall wealth-health causality.

Thesis (M.Com. (Economics)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / The primary goal of this study was to investigate the effects of budget deficit on fixed investment using annual data for the period 1990-2017 in selected African countries namely, Cameroon, Namibia, Ghana, Egypt, Seychelles, Mauritius, Botswana, Lesotho and South Africa. The study employed panel unit root tests including the Augmented Dickey-Fuller test, Philips Perron test and Levin Lin and chu test. The tests revealed that all the variables are integrated at 1st difference. The study further employed the Panel ARDL bounds test to examine the relationship between budget deficit, fixed investment, money supply and inflation. The empirical findings indicated that a long run relationship exists between the variables of interest. Furthermore, the results revealed that the budget deficit has a negative and statistically significant effect on fixed investment. A one percent increase in the budget deficit, ceteris paribus, leads to a reduction in fixed investment by 44 percent in the long run. The findings further postulated a bidirectional causal relationship between budget deficit and fixed investment, between money supply and fixed investment and between fixed investment and inflation. It was evident in the research that indeed the budget deficit is a problematic macroeconomic policy in African countries. Policy makers should limit high government expenditures as they contribute to increased and persistent budget deficits which crowd out private investment.