Democracy, economic growth and government spending in public health in Southeast Asia
International Journal of Development Issues
ISSN: 1446-8956
Article publication date: 17 December 2018
Issue publication date: 20 March 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how political regimes and political transition affect government decisions to allocate budgets to the public health sector in Southeast Asia.
Design/methodology/approach
Ordinary least squares with fixed-effects model is adopted to examine the effect of political regime on public health spending.
Findings
Examining the allocation of public health budgets in Southeast Asian countries, the paper finds that a democratic government positively leads to an increase in public health budget allocation, while autocratic government negatively affects the allocation of public health budgets. Further, political liberalization contributes to an increase in budget allocation to the public health sector.
Originality/value
Democratic politics and economic development aim to distribute public resources to social policy, such as policy on public health.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author thanks the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. I thank Bruce Leeds for his constructive comments. This project is financially supported by the Thailand Research Fund (TRF) (Grant number MRG5980196), the Office of Higher Education Commission and Chulalongkorn University (Grant number DNS 60-002-24-001-2). The author is also thankful to the Center for Social Development Study (CSDS) and the Chulalongkorn Social Research Institute (CUSRI) for their administrative support. The author thanks Teantawat Srijaingam, Tanaporn Nithipruethi, Nattapat Sopin, and Ratchamongkol Mongkoldao for their superb research assistance. All remaining errors are the author’s.
Citation
Laiprakobsup, T. (2019), "Democracy, economic growth and government spending in public health in Southeast Asia", International Journal of Development Issues, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 70-87. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJDI-08-2018-0112
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited