IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0102385.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessment of the Association of Health with the Liberalisation of Trade in Services under the World Trade Organisation

Author

Listed:
  • Román Umaña-Peña
  • Álvaro Franco-Giraldo
  • Carlos Álvarez-Dardet Díaz
  • María Teresa Ruíz-Cantero
  • Diana Gil-González
  • Ildefonso Hernández-Aguado

Abstract

Background: The liberalisation of trade in services which began in 1995 under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has generated arguments for and against its potential health effects. Our goal was to explore the relationship between the liberalisation of services under the GATS and three health indicators - life expectancy (LE), under-5 mortality (U5M) and maternal mortality (MM) - since the WTO was established. Methods and Findings: This was a cross-sectional ecological study that explored the association in 2010 and 1995 between liberalisation and health (LE, U5M and MM), and between liberalisation and progress in health in the period 1995–2010, considering variables related to economic and social policies such as per capita income (GDP pc), public expenditure on health (PEH), and income inequality (Gini index). The units of observation and analysis were WTO member countries with data available for 2010 (n = 116), 1995 (n = 114) and 1995–2010 (n = 114). We conducted bivariate and multivariate linear regression analyses adjusted for GDP pc, Gini and PEH. Increased global liberalisation in services under the WTO was associated with better health in 2010 (U5M: −0.358 p

Suggested Citation

  • Román Umaña-Peña & Álvaro Franco-Giraldo & Carlos Álvarez-Dardet Díaz & María Teresa Ruíz-Cantero & Diana Gil-González & Ildefonso Hernández-Aguado, 2014. "Assessment of the Association of Health with the Liberalisation of Trade in Services under the World Trade Organisation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(7), pages 1-7, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0102385
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0102385
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0102385
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0102385&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0102385?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hoekman, Bernard, 1995. "Tentative First Steps: An Assessment of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Services," CEPR Discussion Papers 1150, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. World Bank, 2012. "World Development Indicators 2012," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6014.
    3. Lant Pritchett & Lawrence H. Summers, 1996. "Wealthier is Healthier," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 31(4), pages 841-868.
    4. David Dollar & Aart Kraay, 2004. "Trade, Growth, and Poverty," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(493), pages 22-49, February.
    5. Roumeen Islam & Gianni Zanini, 2008. "World Trade Indicators 2008 : Benchmarking Policy and Performance," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6334.
    6. David Dollar, 2005. "Globalization, Poverty, and Inequality since 1980," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 20(2), pages 145-175.
    7. J. Outreville, 2007. "Foreign direct investment in the health care sector and most-favoured locations in developing countries," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 8(4), pages 305-312, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mendez Lopez, Ana & Loopstra, Rachel & McKee, Martin & Stuckler, David, 2017. "Is trade liberalisation a vector for the spread of sugar-sweetened beverages? A cross-national longitudinal analysis of 44 low- and middle-income countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 21-27.
    2. AIGHEYISI Oziengbe Scott & OLIGBI O. Blessing, 2019. "Trade Openness, Foreign Direct Investment And Life Expectancy In Nigeria," Annals of Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1(2), pages 351-365, December.
    3. Jani Vishalkumar J, 2017. "Is Trade in Services Healthier than Trade in Goods?," Global Economy Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 17(3), pages 1-7, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Murthy, Vasudeva N.R. & Okunade, Albert A., 2009. "The core determinants of health expenditure in the African context: Some econometric evidence for policy," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 57-62, June.
    2. Goto, Hideaki, 2008. "Labor Market Competitiveness and Poverty," Working Papers 51159, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    3. Fiseha Gebregziabher & Miguel Niño-Zarazúa, 2014. "Social Spending and Aggregate Welfare in Developing and Transition Economies," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2014-082, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Danquah, Michael & Amankwah-Amoah, Joseph, 2017. "Assessing the relationships between human capital, innovation and technology adoption: Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 24-33.
    5. Gebregziabher, Fiseha & Niño-Zarazúa, Miguel, 2014. "Social spending and aggregate welfare in developing and transition economies," WIDER Working Paper Series 082, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    6. Christoph Schinke, 2014. "Government Ideology, Globalization, and Top Income Shares in OECD Countries," ifo Working Paper Series 181, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    7. Liyanaarachchi, Tilak S. & Naranpanawa, Athula & Bandara, Jayatilleke S., 2016. "Impact of trade liberalisation on labour market and poverty in Sri Lanka. An integrated macro-micro modelling approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 102-115.
    8. Chen,Derek Hung Chiat & Ranaweera,Thilakaratna & Storozhuk, Andriy, 2004. "The RMSM-S+P : a minimal poverty module for the RMSM-X," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3304, The World Bank.
    9. Sharma Shalendra D., 2008. "The Many Faces of Today's Globalization: A Survey of Recent Literature," New Global Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 2(2), pages 1-29, June.
    10. Ravallion, Martin, 2006. "Looking beyond averages in the trade and poverty debate," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1374-1392, August.
    11. Ikechukwu D Nwaka & Kalu E Uma & Gulcay Tuna, 2015. "Trade openness and unemployment: Empirical evidence for Nigeria," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 26(1), pages 117-136, March.
    12. Fotio, Hervé Kaffo & Nguea, Stéphane Mbiankeu, 2022. "Access to water and sanitation in Africa: Does globalization matter?," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 79-91.
    13. Zhicheng Liang, 2007. "Trade Liberalization, Economic Restructuring and Urban Poverty: The Case of China," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 21(3), pages 239-259, September.
    14. Florian Dorn & Christoph Schinke, 2018. "Top income shares in OECD countries: The role of government ideology and globalisation," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(9), pages 2491-2527, September.
    15. Levine, David I. & Rothman, Dov, 2006. "Does trade affect child health?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 538-554, May.
    16. Md. Samsul Alam & Syed Ali Raza & Muhammad Shahbaz & Qaisar Abbas, 2016. "Accounting for Contribution of Trade Openness and Foreign Direct Investment in Life Expectancy: The Long-Run and Short-Run Analysis in Pakistan," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 129(3), pages 1155-1170, December.
    17. Biggs, Brian & King, Lawrence & Basu, Sanjay & Stuckler, David, 2010. "Is wealthier always healthier? The impact of national income level, inequality, and poverty on public health in Latin America," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 266-273, July.
    18. Li, Aijun & Du, Nan & Wei, Qian, 2014. "The cross-country implications of alternative climate policies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 155-163.
    19. Sato, Sumie & Fukushige, Mototsugu, 2009. "Globalization and economic inequality in the short and long run: The case of South Korea 1975-1995," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 62-68, January.
    20. Philip Stevens & Jasson Urbach & Gabrielle Wills, 2013. "Healthy Trade: The Relationship Between Open Trade and Health," Foreign Trade Review, , vol. 48(1), pages 125-135, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0102385. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.