The World Bank and Child Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Cross-National Analysis of Structural Adjustment and Health Lending

We examine the impact of World Bank structural adjustment and health lending on child mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa from 1990 to 2005. We use two-way fixed effects regression models to analyze data for a sample of thirty-one Sub-Saharan African nations. We find that when a Sub-Saharan African nation receives a World Bank structural adjustment loan then it tends to have higher levels of child mortality than when it does not receive such a loan. Conversely, we find that when a Sub-Saharan African nations receives a World Bank investment loan in the health sector then it tends to have lower levels of child mortality than it if does not receive an investment health loan. We conclude by talking about the theoretical implications, methodological implications, policy suggestions, limitations of the study, and possible avenues for future research.