DOES BETTER INCOME DISTRIBUTION REDUCE INFANT MORTALITY? THE CASE OF TURKEY

Abstract

While the linkage between economic conditions and health indicators is largely discussed previously, much less is known about how income inequality affects the infant mortality rates (IMR) in Turkey. Using a city-level data from 2014 to 2019 estimates the impact of income inequality and socio-economic factors on infant mortality rates. To identify what factors are associated with the IMRs, the ordered probit, the random effect, and the fixed effect approaches are used. An endogeneity problem between the IMRs and independent variables which are related to medical factors is predicted. To tackle down the endogeneity problem, an instrumental variable approach is used. The estimation results show that income inequality is an important factor which has impact on infant mortalities. The results confirm that there is an inverse association between health service availability and infant mortality rates.