The growth of public health expenditures in OECD countries: Do government ideology and electoral motives matter?

Niklas Potrafke

Journal of Health Economics, 2010, vol. 29, issue 6, 797-810

Abstract: This paper empirically evaluates whether government ideology and electoral motives influenced the growth of public health expenditures in 18 OECD countries over the 1971-2004 period. The results suggest that incumbents behaved opportunistically and increased the growth of public health expenditures in election years. Government ideology did not have an influence. These findings indicate (1) the importance of public health in policy debates before elections and (2) the political pressure towards re-organizing public health policy platforms especially in times of demographic change.

Keywords: Public; health; expenditures; Government; ideology; Partisan; politics; Electoral; cycles; Panel; data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (121)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The growth of public health expenditures in OECD countries: Do government ideology and electoral motives matter? (2010)
Working Paper: The growth of public health expenditures in OECD countries: do government ideology and electoral motives matter? (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:29:y:2010:i:6:p:797-810

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