Evaluating Health Expenditure Effectiveness: Does Political Structure Play a Role?
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2016
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Haverford College. Department of Economics
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Thesis
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Award
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eng
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Haverford users only
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Abstract
Improving health outcomes is a top priority for governments across the world. This thesis evaluates the question what effects do health expenditures, public versus private, have on the health outcome of a country’s population? Additionally, does a country’s political structure have an effect on health outcomes? A comprehensive measure of health outcomes, the Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY), is used to assess the importance of different types of health expenditures on health outcomes. Effects vary by country income groups. Higher health expenditures are negatively correlated with health outcomes in high-income countries, while positively affecting health outcomes in lower middle and low-income countries. In particular, government expenditures in preventative health care are the most effective forms of health expenditures for lower middle and low-income countries. Higher levels of democracy are correlated with better health outcomes in upper middle-income countries. Policy implications include more resources devoted to government health spending in lower middle and low-income countries, while measures to improve effectiveness of health expenditures in high-income countries may be needed.