Democracy and Infant Mortality in Less-Developed Nations: Dismantling Differences in Direct and Indirect Effects Modeling

Sociological Perspectives

2022

Scholars have long investigated the factors that affect health outcomes in less-developed countries. One debate that has increasingly intensified in recent years is the democracy and health relationship in comparative international context. Scholars argue that democracy does affect country-level health outcomes in less-developed countries, while others argue democracy does not affect country-level health outcomes. I estimate the effect of numerous democracy indexes on child mortality and infant mortality in developing countries using fixed effects regression models with heteroskedasticity-robust standard errors clustered by country. I find that multiple aspects of democracy exert significant beneficial effects on child mortality and infant mortality in less-developed countries.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Democracy and Health in Developing Countries: New Cross-National Evidence, 1990–2016

Sociological Perspectives

2022

“…All models include the natural logarithm of real GDP per capita (PPP). Economic development is a common control variable in cross-national research (e.g Clark 2008;Noble 2019)…”

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confidence: 99%

Explaining Global Inequities in Measles Vaccination Rates

2023

Comp. Sociol.

Measles has long plagued human societies. Measles vaccines are highly effective in preventing this disease, but there are striking inequities in vaccination rates between developed and less-developed countries. Scholars have long argued that foreign investment dependence explains global inequities in development outcomes more broadly. The author argues that debt dependence is what matters for such empirical observations. He evaluates his argument using fixed effects panel regression models of 97 less-developed countries from 1990–2019. The empirical evidence supports his argument.

“…Trade openness I include a measure of Trade Openness, which is commonly measured as trade (exports + imports) as a percentage of GDP (ln) (e.g., Clark 2008;Noble 2019;Sommer, Restivo, and Shandra 2020;Tester 2020). I log-transform this variable to account for skew.…”

Section: Urbanizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The harmful effects of primary sector foreign direct investment on carbon dioxide emissions in developing countries, 2000–2018

Social Science Quarterly

2022

Objective: This research investigates whether primary sector foreign direct investment affects carbon dioxide emissions in developing countries. Methods: I estimate generalized least squares random effects panel regression models. Results: GLS RE panel regression models indicate that primary sector foreign investment dependence is positively associated with total carbon dioxide emissions, which supports the tenets of foreign investment dependency theory. Conclusion: This analysis underscores the need for comparative international scientists to conduct more nuanced investigations of the macro-level processes affecting greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries. 1476 MEJIASocial scientists have also long investigated the impacts of foreign direct investment (FDI on developing countries. 1 Indeed, such research questions generated a prolific body of cross-national research that empirically evaluates the predictions of foreign investment dependency theory (e.g., Bornschier 1980; Chase-Dunn 1975;Kentor 1998Kentor , 2001. More recently, social scientists have increasingly turned their attention to the environmental impacts of foreign investment on developing countries, with particular attention to greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide emissions (e.g.