Our Journals
IJED Articles 
Health Care Technologies and Global Convergence of TB and Cancer Mortality Rates
DEVDATTA RAY
IJED, Vol. 11 No. 1,
(2017)
Analysis of cancer and TB mortality rates with 144 and 196 countries respectively for 1970 – 2012 is done. To get more reliable picture how these rates are affected by health care technologies, health care resources and relevant socio-economic variables are added to the analysis. Methods of trend growth and convergence analysis, found in economic growth empirics, are used to analyze the effects of global catch-up of health care technologies through diffusion between more and less advanced countries. The results show that there is evidence of larger declining trend growth process in low income countries for both illnesses when compared to higher income countries. However, the speed of declining mortality rate processes has been slowing in high income countries in recent decades. Both σ- and β- convergence is found to be present for TB. Conditional β- convergence in TB is larger when HCT and socio-economic factors are added to the test models. For cancer mortality, no clear evidence of σ-convergence is found. However, when technologies and socio-economic factors are added to the β- convergence model, the convergence rates are the largest in lower income countries for both illness. Contrary to this, in 1995 – 2012, β-convergence of cancer with technologies and socio- economic variables disappear.
