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Is the political system really related to health?

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  • Klomp, Jeroen
  • de Haan, Jakob

Abstract

We analyze whether the political system and its stability are related to cross-country differences in health. We apply factor analysis on various national health indicators for a large sample of countries over the period 2000-2005 and use the outcomes of the factor analysis to construct two new health measures, i.e., the health of individuals and the quality of the health care sector. Using a cross-country structural equation model with various economic and demographic control variables, we examine the relationship between the type of regime and political stability on the one hand and health on the other. The political variables and the control variables are measured as averages over the period 1980-1999. Our results suggest that democracy has a positive relationship with the health of individuals, while regime instability has a negative relationship with the health of individuals. Government instability is negatively related to individual health via its link with the quality of the health care sector, while democracy is positively related with individual health through its link with income. Our main findings are confirmed by the results of a panel model and various sensitivity tests.

Suggested Citation

  • Klomp, Jeroen & de Haan, Jakob, 2009. "Is the political system really related to health?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 36-46, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:69:y:2009:i:1:p:36-46
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    3. Kashish TIBREWAL & Saswati CHAUDHURI, 2022. "Institutional quality and public healthcare," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania / Editura Economica, vol. 0(1(630), S), pages 63-82, Spring.
    4. Fumagalli, Elena & Mentzakis, Emmanouil & Suhrcke, Marc, 2013. "Do political factors matter in explaining under- and overweight outcomes in developing countries?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 48-56.
    5. Costa-Font, Joan & Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada, 2017. "Can Regional Decentralisation Shift Health Care Preferences?," IZA Discussion Papers 11180, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Johan Mackenbach & Caspar Looman, 2013. "Changing patterns of mortality in 25 European countries and their economic and political correlates, 1955–1989," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 58(6), pages 811-823, December.
    7. Peterson, Lindsey & Ralston, Margaret, 2019. "Aging well in an aging world: The impact of material conditions, culture, and societal disruptions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 245-253.
    8. van der Windt, Peter & Vandoros, Sotiris, 2017. "Democracy and health: Evidence from within-country heterogeneity in the Congo," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 10-16.
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    10. Krueger, Patrick M. & Dovel, Kathryn & Denney, Justin T., 2015. "Democracy and self-rated health across 67 countries: A multilevel analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 137-144.
    11. Mackenbach, Johan P. & McKee, Martin, 2015. "Government, politics and health policy: A quantitative analysis of 30 European countries," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(10), pages 1298-1308.
    12. Mackenbach, Johan P. & Hu, Yannan & Looman, Caspar W.N., 2013. "Democratization and life expectancy in Europe, 1960–2008," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 166-175.
    13. Johannes Blum & Florian Dorn & Axel Heuer, 2021. "Political institutions and health expenditure," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 28(2), pages 323-363, April.
    14. Gabriele Prati, 2022. "The Association between Subjective Well-being and Regime Type across 78 countries: the moderating role of Political Trust," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(6), pages 3393-3413, December.
    15. Pushkar, 2012. "Democracy and Infant Mortality in India’s ‘Mini-democracies’: A Preliminary Theoretical Inquiry and Analysis," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 7(2), pages 109-137, October.
    16. Okada, Keisuke, 2018. "Health and political regimes: Evidence from quantile regression," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 307-319.
    17. Issa Dianda & Idrissa Ouedraogo, 2021. "The synergistic effect of government health spending and institutional quality on health capital accumulation in WAEMU countries," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 41(2), pages 495-506.
    18. Datta, Sandip, 2020. "Political competition and public healthcare expenditure: Evidence from Indian states," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 244(C).
    19. Fabrizio Carmignani & Sriram Shankar & Eng Tan & Kam Tang, 2014. "Identifying covariates of population health using extreme bound analysis," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 15(5), pages 515-531, June.
    20. Joan Costa-Font & Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell, 2019. "Regional Decentralisation and the Demand for Public Health Care," Studies on the Spanish Economy eee2019-41, FEDEA.
    21. Smith, Stephanie L. & Neupane, Shailes, 2011. "Factors in health initiative success: Learning from Nepal's newborn survival initiative," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(4), pages 568-575, February.
    22. Mackenbach, Johan P., 2013. "Political conditions and life expectancy in Europe, 1900–2008," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 134-146.
    23. Ọláyínká Oyèkọ́lá, 2023. "Democracy Does Improve Health," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 166(1), pages 105-132, February.

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