Can only democracies enhance “Human Development”? Evidence from the Former Soviet Countries

John McCombie and Marta Spreafico

No ispe0066, DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Politica Economica from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE)

Abstract: Despite the considerable interest in the concept of human development, there has been little research on the political determinants of its dimensions. This paper investigates the role played by the type of political systems on the non-income components of human development. In particular it tests the hypothesis that it is not only democratic countries that enhance spending on health and education, but this might be true of autocratic regimes. The hypothesis is tested for the former Soviet Republics. It is found that expenditure on the social provision of health and education increases with both the degree of democracy and autocracy.

Keywords: governing authority; human development; political regimes; public expenditure on health and education; panel analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C33 H51 H52 I10 I20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35
Date: 2013-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cis, nep-cwa, nep-pke and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ctc:serie5:ispe0066

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