Assessment of the Impact of Some Socio - Economic Variables on Worldwide Average Life Expectancy: A Logit Approach
E. F. Udoumoh *
Federal University of Agriculture Makurdi, Nigeria.
T. Subeno
Delta State Polytechnic Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State, Nigeria.
U. I. William
Federal University of Agriculture Makurdi, Nigeria.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Life Expectancy is considered as a key indicator for measuring the total wellbeing of a country. In this paper, the impact of some socio-economic variables on life expectancy is investigated. These variables namely: access to electricity, GDP per capita, unemployment total labour force, unemployment of youth total, health expenditure per capita, and adjusted national income were common for all countries. The Binary Logistic Regression model was considered and the analysis was done using the Forward Stepwise (Likelihood Ratio) procedure. Using the data of life expectancy of 70 countries in year 2020, results revealed that access to electricity and health expenditure per capita positively impacted on life expectancy. Countries that had Access to Electricity were 1.113 times (Prob. = 0.53) more likely to attend the worldwide life expectancy. Countries with increased Health Expenditure per Capita were 1.004 times (Prob. = 0.50) more likely to experience increase in life expectancy. Health expenditure per capita was significant at ; which implies that appropriate health financing has significant positive impact on life expectancy irrespective of country.
Keywords: Life expectancy, logistic regression, odd ratio, wellbeing, longevity