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Democracy, dictatorship, and disease: Political regimes and HIV/AIDS

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  • Justesen, Mogens K.

Abstract

Despite extensive empirical research, there is little agreement on how and why political regimes affect social and economic development. This paper expands on this literature by examining how political regimes affect health policies relating to the treatment of HIV/AIDS. The paper examines whether multiparty competition matters for access to treatment of HIV/AIDS and then moves on to analyse the effect of electoral systems. Using regression and matching methods on data for a broad cross-section of countries, the results show that democracy on average increases access to treatment of HIV/AIDS. However, only democracies using proportional electoral systems that allow for greater representation of minority interests rather than plurality voting differ significantly from autocracies.

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  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:poleco:v:28:y:2012:i:3:p:373-389
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2012.02.001
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    Cited by:

    1. Martin Roessler, 2019. "Political regimes and publicly provided goods: why democracy needs development," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 180(3), pages 301-331, September.
    2. Bjørnskov, Christian & Schröder, Philipp J.H., 2013. "Are debt repayment incentives undermined by foreign aid?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 1073-1091.
    3. Bhandari, Aarushi & Burroway, Rebekah, 2023. "Hold the phone! A cross-national analysis of Women's education, mobile phones, and HIV infections in low- and middle-income countries, 1990–2018," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).
    4. 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.
    5. Karabulut, Gokhan & Zimmermann, Klaus F. & Bilgin, Mehmet Huseyin & Doker, Asli Cansin, 2021. "Democracy and COVID-19 outcomes," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    6. Shawn Arita & Sumner La Croix & Christopher Edmonds, 2014. "Effect of Approved Destination Status on Mainland Chinese Travel Abroad," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 28(3), pages 217-237, September.
    7. Jacob Gerner Hariri & Christian Bjørnskov & Mogens K. Justesen, 2016. "Economic Shocks and Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 30(1), pages 55-77.
    8. Derick W. Brinkerhoff, 2016. "Building political will for HIV response: an operational model and strategy options," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 470-487, October.
    9. Münch Angela & Fielding David & Freytag Andreas, 2020. "Public Spending on Health as Political Instrument? – Regime-type dependency of public spending," Open Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 121-134, January.
    10. Bernard, Sophie & Hotte, Louis & Winer, Stanley L., 2014. "Democracy, inequality and the environment when citizens can mitigate health consequences of pollution privately or act collectively," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 142-156.
    11. Oechslin, Manuel, 2014. "Targeting autocrats: Economic sanctions and regime change," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 24-40.
    12. Lin, Thung-Hong & Chang, Min-Chiao & Chang, Chun-Chih & Chou, Ya-Hsuan, 2022. "Government-sponsored disinformation and the severity of respiratory infection epidemics including COVID-19: A global analysis, 2001–2020," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 296(C).
    13. Boese-Schlosser, Vanessa & Bayerlein, Michael & Gates, Scott & Kamin, Katrin & Murshed, Syed Mansoob, 2023. "Trust issues? How being socialised in an autocracy shapes vaccine uptake," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Transformations of Democracy SP V 2023-502, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    14. Yuyang He & Dominik Naeher, 2022. "Do democracies perform worse during pandemics? Evidence from 2020," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 42(3), pages 1681-1687.
    15. 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).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Political regimes; Democracy; Electoral institutions; Proportional representation; HIV/AIDS;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • H1 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • P48 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - Legal Institutions; Property Rights; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Regional Studies

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