BazEkon - The Main Library of the Cracow University of Economics

BazEkon home page

Main menu

Author
Münch Angela (Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany), Fielding David (University of Otago, New Zeland), Freytag Andreas (Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany)
Title
Public Spending on Health as Political Instrument? - Regime-type Dependency of Public Spending
Source
Open Economics, 2020, vol. 3, iss. 1, s. 121-134, rys., tab., bibliogr. 45 poz.
Keyword
Wydatki na ochronę zdrowia, Wydatki publiczne, Wydatki państwa, Wydatki wojskowe, Totalitaryzm, Ustrój polityczny
Expenditures on health care, Public expenditures, Government spending, Military expenditures, Totalitarianism, Political organization
Note
JEL Classification: I18, H51.
summ.
Abstract
The paper argues that the level of public spending on health varies according to the type of political regime in a country. A simple political economic model is employed to analyse the rationale of policy makers when implementing healthcare policy. The theory of dictatorship as described by Wintrobe (1990, 1998, 2001) is used to differentiate between the types of autocratic regimes. Furthermore, an empirical analysis is conducted for 170 countries for the years 1995-2014. We found that public spending on health is decreasing with the level of political freedom. At the same time, public spending on health care competes with military expenditures. Moreover, public spending on health in neighbouring countries affects the level of public spending within the country. (original abstract)
Full text
Show
Bibliography
Show
  1. Adam, A., Delis, M.D., Kammas, P., 2011. Are democratic governments more efficient? European Journal of Political Economy 27, 75-86.
  2. Alesina, A., Baqir, R., Easterly, W., 1999. Public goods and ethnic divisions. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 114, 1243-1284.
  3. Baltagi, B.H., Moscone, F., 2010. Health care expenditure and income in the OECD reconsidered: Evidence from panel data. Economic Modelling 27, 804-811.
  4. Baum, M.A., Lake, D.A., 2003. The political economy of growth: democracy and human capital. American Journal of Political Science 47, 333-347.
  5. Bell, C., 2011. Buying Support and Buying Time: The Effect of Regime Consolidation on Public Goods Provision. International Studies Quarterly 55, 625-646.
  6. Besley, T., Kudamatsu, M., 2006. Health and democracy. The American economic review 96, 313-318.
  7. Bor, J., 2007. The political economy of AIDS leadership in developing countries: an exploratory analysis. Social Science & Medicine 64, 1585-1599.
  8. Bulte, E.H., Damania, R., Deacon, R.T., 2005. Resource intensity, institutions, and development. World Development 33, 1029-1044.
  9. Croke, K. 2011. Foreign aid, child health, and health system development in Tanzania and Uganda, 1995-2009. Dissertation submitted to John Hopkins University, Maryland.
  10. De Hoyos, R.E., Sarafidis,V. 2006. Testing for cross-sectional dependence in panel-data models, Stata Journal, 6, 482-496.
  11. Deacon, R.T., 2009. Public good provision under dictatorship and democracy. Public Choice 139, 241-262.
  12. Delavallade, C., 2006. Corruption and distribution of public spending in developing countries. Journal of economics and finance 30, 222-239.
  13. Evans, D.B., Tandon, A., Murray, C.J., Lauer, J.A., 2001. Comparative efficiency of national health systems: cross national econometric analysis. BMj 323, 307-310.
  14. Fearon, J.D., 2003. Ethnic and Cultural Diversity by Country. Journal of Economic Growth 8, 195-222.
  15. Fischer, M., Getis, A. (eds.) 2010. Handbook of Applied Spatial Analysis - Software Tools, Methods and Applications. Springer Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg.
  16. Franck, R., Rainer, I., 2009. Does the leader's ethnicity matter? Ethnic favoritism, education and health in Sub-Saharan Africa. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Economics, Bar Ilan University, and Department of Economics, George Mason University.
  17. Franzese, R.J., Hays, J.C., 2007. Spatial econometric models of cross-sectional interdependence in political science panel and time-series-cross-section data. Political Analysis 15, 140-164.
  18. Gauri, V., Lieberman, E.S., 2006. Boundary institutions and HIV/AIDS policy in Brazil and South Africa. Studies in Comparative International Development 41, 47-73.
  19. Gerdtham, U.-G., Löthgren, M., 2000. On stationarity and cointegration of international health expenditure and GDP. Journal of Health Economics 19, 461-475.
  20. Ghobarah, H.A., Huth, P., Russett, B., 2003. Civil wars kill and maim people-long after the shooting stops. American Political Science Review 97, 189-202.
  21. Ghobarah, H.A., Huth, P., Russett, B., 2004. Comparative Public Health: The Political Economy of Human Misery and Well-Being. International Studies Quarterly, 48, 73-94.
  22. Gilson, L., Raphaely, N. 2008. The terrain of health policy analysis in low and middle income countries: a review of published literature 1994-2007. Health policy and planning, 23, 294-307.
  23. Gizelis, T.-I., 2009. Wealth alone does not buy health: Political capacity, democracy, and the spread of AIDS. Political Geography 28, 121-131.
  24. Hansen, P., King, A., 1998. Health care expenditure and GDP: panel data unit root test results-comment. Journal of Health Economics 17, 377-381.
  25. Hsiao, W.C., Heller, P.S., 2007. What macroeconomists should know about health care policy. International Monetary Fund.
  26. Islam, M.N., Winer, S.L., 2004. Tinpots, totalitarians (and democrats): an empirical investigation of the effects of economic growth on civil liberties and political rights. Public Choice 118, 289-323.
  27. Justesen, M. K. 2012. Democracy, dictatorship, and disease: Political regimes and HIV/AIDS. European Journal of Political Economy, 28, 373-389.
  28. LeSage, J., Pace, R.K. 2009. Introduction to Spatial Econometrics, Taylor & Francis Group: Boca Raton.
  29. McCoskey, S.K., Selden, T.M., 1998. Health care expenditures and GDP: panel data unit root test results. Journal of Health Economics 17, 369-376.
  30. McGuire, J.W. 2006. Basic health care provision and under-5 mortality: a cross-national study of developing countries. World Development, 34, 405-425.
  31. Mulligan, C.B., Sala-i-Martin, X., Gil, R., 2003. Do democracies have different public policies than nondemocracies? National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No 10040.
  32. Muntaner, C., Borrell, C., Ng, E., Chung, H., Espelt, A., Rodriguez-Sanz, M., Benach, J., O'Campo, P., 2011. Politics, welfare regimes, and population health: controversies and evidence. Sociology of health & illness 33, 946-964.
  33. Navarro, V., Muntaner, C., Borrell, C., Benach, J., Quiroga, Á., Rodriguez-Sanz, M., Verges, N., Pasarin, M. I. 2006. Politics and health outcomes. The Lancet, 368, 1033-1037.
  34. Parkin, D., McGuire, A., Yule, B., 1987. Aggregate health care expenditures and national income: is health care a luxury good? Journal of health economics 6, 109-127.
  35. Platas, M., 2011. Africa's Health Tragedy? Ethnic Diversity and Health Outcomes. Ethnic Diversity and Health Outcomes. Western Political Science Association 2011 Annual Meeting Paper.
  36. QoG 2017. Quality of Governance Database. University of Gothenburg, Sweden [online resource] www. qog.pol.gu.se. last accessed 2017-11-11.
  37. Ross, M., 2006. Is democracy good for the poor? American Journal of Political Science 50, 860-874.
  38. Standaert, S. 2015. Divining the Level of Corruption: a Bayesian State Space Approach. Journal of Comparative Economics, 43 782-803.
  39. United Nations, 2015. Sustainable Development Goals, [online resource] https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics, last accessed September 22nd, 2015.
  40. Walt, G., Gilson, L. 1994. Reforming the health sector in developing countries: the central role of policy analysis. Health policy and planning, 9, 353-370.
  41. Wigley, S., Akkoyunlu-Wigley, A., 2011. The impact of regime type on health: does redistribution explain everything? World Politics 63, 647-677.
  42. Wintrobe, R., 1990. The tinpot and the totalitarian: An economic theory of dictatorship. The American Political Science Review, 849-872.
  43. Wintrobe, R., 1998. The political economy of dictatorship. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge [u.a.].
  44. Wintrobe, R., 2001. How to Understand, and Deal with Dictatorship: An Economist's view. Economics of Governance 2, 35-58.
  45. Worldbank, 2017. Worldbank Development Indicator Database. [online resource] www.worldbank.org. last accessed 2017-11-11.
Cited by
Show
ISSN
2451-3458
Language
eng
URI / DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/openec-2020-0108
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Share on Pinterest Share on LinkedIn Wyślij znajomemu