Abstract

This paper aims to study from empirical observations interaction between health and economic growth to reduce poverty. To investigate this question, a model of simultaneous equations was developed to endogenous economic growth and to assign the quality of poverty. Using data from a sample of five countries on the southern shore of the Mediterranean during the period 1992-2014, the results provide evidence of a positive association between health and economic growth on the one hand, and a positive association between improvement health and poverty reduction on the other. Thus, the total impact of life expectancy on poverty is equal to - 0.705 sum of the direct and indirect impact. We improve life expectancy by 10% resulting in lower rates of poverty -7.05%. Furthermore, equation (1) shows that increasing the index that measures income inequality a unit causes an increase in poverty in an amount equal to 0.82. Similarly the equation (2) shows that the increase in inequality of a unit may induce GDP growth decreased -1.08 which means that even the influence of income inequality n ' is also limited to its direct effect on poverty, but also incorporates indirect impact linked to the evolution of GDP. We notice a total impact of income inequality on poverty reduction. According to the calculation any increase in the index of inequality of income 10% results in a rate of increase in poverty by 9.7%. We also note that improving health is the indispensable vehicle for poverty reduction.