IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/89834.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The enduring influence of institutions on universal health coverage: an empirical investigation of 62 former colonies

Author

Listed:
  • Miller, Michael
  • Toffolutti, Veronica
  • Reeves, Aaron

Abstract

In this paper, we argue that particular institutional arrangements partly explain the large and persistent differences in health systems and health outcomes observed in former colonies. Drawing on data from the World Health Organization for 62 countries, covering the period 2000–2014, we explore whether economic (risk of expropriation) and health (complete cause of death registries) institutions explain mortality rates and access to healthcare. To identify this relationship, we use settler mortality and the distance of the capital from the nearest major port – factors associated with institutional arrangements – to explain cross-national variation in health outcomes and the universality of health systems. We find that inclusive institutions arrangements – that protect and acknowledge the rights of citizens – are associated with better health outcomes (e.g. lower infant mortality and lower maternal mortality) as well as with better health systems (e.g. more skilled birth attendance and greater immunization). Inclusive institutions not only foster economic growth but improve health and well-being too.

Suggested Citation

  • Miller, Michael & Toffolutti, Veronica & Reeves, Aaron, 2018. "The enduring influence of institutions on universal health coverage: an empirical investigation of 62 former colonies," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 89834, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:89834
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/89834/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Del Prete, Davide & Ghins, Léopold & Magrini, Emiliano & Pauw, Karl, 2019. "Land consolidation, specialization and household diets: Evidence from Rwanda," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 139-149.
    2. Reeves, Aaron & Sochas, Laura, 2022. "When do democratic transitions reduce or increase child mortality? Exploring the role of non-violent resistance," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).
    3. Aguilar-Gomez, Sandra & Benshaul-Tolonen, Anja, 2023. "The evolution and persistence of women's roles: Evidence from the Gold Rush," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 215(C), pages 364-381.
    4. Ghasemi, Abdolrasoul & Boroumand, Yasaman & Shirazi, Masoud, 2020. "How do governments perform in facing COVID-19?," MPRA Paper 99791, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 20 Apr 2020.
    5. Thang, Doan Ngoc & Ha, Le Thanh, 2022. "Trade credit and global value chain: Evidence from cross-country firm-level data," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 110-129.
    6. Xiaofeng Shi & Jianying Li & Fei Wang & Hasan Dinçer & Serhat Yüksel, 2019. "A Hybrid Decision-Making Approach for the Service and Financial-Based Measurement of Universal Health Coverage for the E7 Economies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-20, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Institutions; Health coverage; Instrumental variables;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State
    • P51 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - Comparative Analysis of Economic Systems

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ehl:lserod:89834. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    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.