IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wap/wpaper/1712.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Democratization and Human Development

Author

Listed:
  • Susumu Annaka

    (Ph.D. Candidate of Political Science in the Graduate School of Political Science at Waseda University)

  • Masaaki Higashijima

    (Political Science in the Graduate School of Information Sciences at Tohoku University)

Abstract

Comparativists have long debated whether democracy advances human development. Recent studies suggest that the stock of democracy is more important than the current level of democracy to predict infant mortality rates, an often-used measure of human welfare. The “stock” argument, however, does not explore whether a democratic regime change at a point in time affects people's welfare thereafter. Moreover, the extant crossnational work encounters three problems in panel regression analysis: They do not correct for historical trends in infant mortality and the number of democracies, employ country-fixed effects on data with a short time-horizon mostly starting from 1960, and do not deal with possible endogeneity between democracy and human development. Using a newly collected panel data of infant mortality covering from 1800 to 2015, we revisit this debate. Applying the Error Correction Models (ECM) with Instrumental Variables (IV) estimation, we find that democratization has only a long-run effect on reducing infant mortality.

Suggested Citation

  • Susumu Annaka & Masaaki Higashijima, 2017. "Democratization and Human Development," Working Papers 1712, Waseda University, Faculty of Political Science and Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:wap:wpaper:1712
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.waseda.jp/fpse/winpec/assets/uploads/2014/05/No.E1712.pdf
    File Function: First version,
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Ross, 2006. "Is Democracy Good for the Poor?," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(4), pages 860-874, October.
    2. Masayuki Kudamatsu, 2012. "Has Democratization Reduced Infant Mortality In Sub-Saharan Africa? Evidence From Micro Data," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 10(6), pages 1294-1317, December.
    3. Bodea, Cristina & Higashijima, Masaaki & Singh, Raju Jan, 2016. "Oil and Civil Conflict: Can Public Spending Have a Mitigation Effect?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 1-12.
    4. Mark McGillivray & Simon Feeny & Niels Hermes & Robert Lensink, 2006. "Controversies over the impact of development aid: it works; it doesn't; it can, but that depends …," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(7), pages 1031-1050.
    5. Daron Acemoglu & Suresh Naidu & Pascual Restrepo & James A. Robinson, 2019. "Democracy Does Cause Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(1), pages 47-100.
    6. Ansell,Ben W. & Samuels,David J., 2014. "Inequality and Democratization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107000360.
    7. Erik Melander & Therése Pettersson & Lotta Themnér, 2016. "Organized violence, 1989–2015," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 53(5), pages 727-742, September.
    8. Jutta Bolt & Jan Luiten Zanden, 2014. "The Maddison Project: collaborative research on historical national accounts," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 67(3), pages 627-651, August.
    9. Przeworski,Adam & Alvarez,Michael E. & Cheibub,Jose Antonio & Limongi,Fernando, 2000. "Democracy and Development," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521793797.
    10. George Avelino & David S. Brown & Wendy Hunter, 2005. "The Effects of Capital Mobility, Trade Openness, and Democracy on Social Spending in Latin America, 1980–1999," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 49(3), pages 625-641, July.
    11. Daron Acemoglu & Suresh Naidu & Pascual Restrepo & James A. Robinson, 2013. "Democracy, Redistribution and Inequality," NBER Working Papers 19746, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Haber, Stephen & Menaldo, Victor, 2011. "Do Natural Resources Fuel Authoritarianism? A Reappraisal of the Resource Curse," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 105(1), pages 1-26, February.
    13. Przeworski,Adam & Alvarez,Michael E. & Cheibub,Jose Antonio & Limongi,Fernando, 2000. "Democracy and Development," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521790321.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Annaka, Susumu & Higashijima, Masaaki, 2021. "Political liberalization and human development: Dynamic effects of political regime change on infant mortality across three centuries (1800-2015)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    2. Okada, Keisuke, 2018. "Health and political regimes: Evidence from quantile regression," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 307-319.
    3. Antoine Marsaudon & Josselin Thuilliez, 2016. "Does democracy reduce the HIV epidemic? Evidence from Kenya," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-01400833, HAL.
    4. Kammas, Pantelis & Sarantides, Vassilis, 2019. "Do dictatorships redistribute more?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 176-195.
    5. Alberto Batinti & Joan Costa‐Font & Timothy J. Hatton, 2022. "Voting Up? The Effects of Democracy and Franchise Extension on Human Stature," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(353), pages 161-190, January.
    6. John A Doces, 2020. "Democracy, consumption, and growth in sub-Saharan Africa," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 23(1), pages 28-48, March.
    7. Ramos, Antonio P. & Flores, Martin J. & Ross, Michael L., 2020. "Where has democracy helped the poor? Democratic transitions and early-life mortality at the country level," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    8. Daron Acemoglu & Suresh Naidu & Pascual Restrepo & James A. Robinson, 2019. "Democracy Does Cause Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(1), pages 47-100.
    9. Bautista, M. A. & González, F. & Martínez, L. R. & Muñoz, P. & Prem, M., 2020. "Chile’s Missing Students: Dictatorship, Higher Education and Social Mobility," Documentos de Trabajo 18163, Universidad del Rosario.
    10. Santiago López-Cariboni & Xun Cao, 2019. "When do authoritarian rulers educate: Trade competition and human capital investment in Non-Democracies," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 367-405, September.
    11. Welander, Anna & Lyttkens, Carl Hampus & Nilsson, Therese, 2015. "Globalization, democracy, and child health in developing countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 136, pages 52-63.
    12. Dorsch, Michael T. & Maarek, Paul, 2015. "Inefficient predation and political transitions," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 37-48.
    13. Gerring, John & Gjerløw, Haakon & Knutsen, Carl Henrik, 2022. "Regimes and industrialization," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    14. Justesen, Mogens K., 2012. "Democracy, dictatorship, and disease: Political regimes and HIV/AIDS," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 373-389.
    15. Daron Acemoglu & Suresh Naidu & Pascual Restrepo & James A. Robinson, 2013. "Democracy, Redistribution and Inequality," NBER Working Papers 19746, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Wong, Mathew Y.H., 2021. "Democracy, hybrid regimes, and inequality: The divergent effects of contestation and inclusiveness," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    17. Dalibor Eterovic & Cassandra Sweet, 2011. "How Women and Illiterates Shaped Education Outcomes in 20th Century Latin America," Working Papers wp_007, Adolfo Ibáñez University, School of Government.
    18. Lourdes ROJAS RUBIO, 2022. "Inequality, Corruption and Support for Democracy," THEMA Working Papers 2022-20, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    19. Barrak Algharabali & J. S. Butler & Stacy Closson, 2021. "The Oil Curse Validated: Evidence from Eurasia and Latin America," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 11(3), pages 494-501.
    20. Welander, Anna & Lyttkens, Carl Hampus & Nilsson, Therese, 2014. "Globalization and Child Health in Developing Countries: The Role of Democracy," Working Paper Series 1016, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.

    More about this item

    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:wap:wpaper:1712. 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: Haruko Noguchi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/spwasjp.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.