Department of Economics, Lund University, P.O. Box 7082, SE-220 07 Lund, Sweden.
Department of Economics, Lund University, P.O. Box 7082, SE-220 07 Lund, Sweden; Centre for Economic Demography, Lund University, P.O. Box 7083, SE-220 07 Lund, Sweden; Research Institute of Industrial Economics, P.O. Box 55665, SE-102 15 Stockholm, Sweden.
Soc Sci Med. 2015 Jul;136-137:52-63. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.05.006. Epub 2015 May 2.
Good health is crucial for human and economic development. In particular poor health in childhood is of utmost concern since it causes irreversible damage and has implications later in life. Recent research suggests globalization is a strong force affecting adult and child health outcomes. Yet, there is much unexplained variation with respect to the globalization effect on child health, in particular in low- and middle-income countries. One factor that could explain such variation across countries is the quality of democracy. Using panel data for 70 developing countries between 1970 and 2009 this paper disentangles the relationship between globalization, democracy, and child health. Specifically the paper examines how globalization and a country's democratic status and historical experience with democracy, respectively, affect infant mortality. In line with previous research, results suggest that globalization reduces infant mortality and that the level of democracy in a country generally improves child health outcomes. Additionally, democracy matters for the size of the globalization effect on child health. If for example Côte d'Ivoire had been a democracy in the 2000-2009 period, this effect would translate into 1200 fewer infant deaths in an average year compared to the situation without democracy. We also find that nutrition is the most important mediator in the relationship. To conclude, globalization and democracy together associate with better child health in developing countries.
良好的健康状况对人类和经济发展至关重要。特别是，儿童时期的健康状况不佳尤其令人关注，因为它会造成不可逆转的损害，并对以后的生活产生影响。最近的研究表明，全球化是影响成人和儿童健康结果的一股强大力量。然而，全球化对儿童健康的影响存在很大的无法解释的差异，特别是在低收入和中等收入国家。一个可以解释这种国家间差异的因素是民主的质量。本文利用 1970 年至 2009 年期间 70 个发展中国家的面板数据，厘清了全球化、民主与儿童健康之间的关系。具体而言，本文研究了全球化以及一个国家的民主地位和民主历史经验分别如何影响婴儿死亡率。与之前的研究一致，结果表明全球化降低了婴儿死亡率，一国的民主水平总体上改善了儿童健康结果。此外，民主对全球化对儿童健康的影响程度也很重要。例如，如果科特迪瓦在 2000-2009 年期间是一个民主国家，那么与没有民主的情况相比，这一效应将使平均每年的婴儿死亡人数减少 1200 人。我们还发现，营养是两者关系中最重要的中介因素。总之，全球化和民主共同为发展中国家的儿童健康带来了好处。
