Arzu Akkoyunlu-Wigley

The Impact of Regime Type on Health: Does Redistribution Explain Everything?

Many scholars claim that democracy improves population health. The prevailing explanation for this is that democratic regimes distribute health-promoting resources more widely than autocratic regimes. The central contention of this article is that democracies also have a significant pro-health effect regardless of public redistributive policies. After establishing the theoretical plausibility of the nondistributive effect, a panel of 153 countries for the years 1972 to 2000 is used to examine the relationship between extent of democratic experience and life expectancy. The authors find that democratic governance continues to have a salutary effect on population health even when controls are introduced for the distribution of health-enhancing resources. Data for fifty autocratic countries for the years 1994 to 2007 are then used to examine whether media freedom—independent of government responsiveness—has a positive impact on life expectancy.

Effects of the customs union with the European Union on the market structure and pricing behaviour of the Turkish manufacturing industry

Turkey established a Customs Union with the European Union in 1996. This study aims to analyse the effect of that Customs Union on the market structure and the pricing behaviour of the Turkish manufacturing industry for the period 1994 to 2000. To that end, the price cost mark-up equation of 12 manufacturing industry sectors is estimated using the import and export ratios with European Union countries together with control variables. A second equation is also estimated for the concentration ratio index, taking the trade ratios with European Union countries as explanatory variables. The estimation method is panel data covering eight years and 12 cross-section units. Estimation outcomes indicate that the export and import ratios of trade with European Union countries have a negative relation with the price cost mark-up in the manufacturing sector. It is concluded that increased imports with union countries have created a positive wealth and efficiency effect upon the Turkish manufacturing industry, due to falling price cost mark-ups. Similarly, the concentration ratio equation estimation outcomes indicate that increased imports with union countries have induced a decline in the concentration ratio for the manufacturing industry during the period in question.

Does control of rheumatic disease raise the standard of living in developing countries

The WHO-ILAR collaborative program on rheumaticdisease (COPCORD) includes all musculoskeletal disease(RD). Studieshavenowbeencompletedinmanydevelopingcountries, and a number of population samples have beenstudied in China, India, the Philippines, and Iran [1]. Thesehave shown that low back pain, knee, neck, and arm painare the most common RD as is also the case in developedcountries [2]. Knee osteoarthritis is a major problem,whereas hip osteoarthritis is rare. Rheumatoid arthritisprevalence in developing countries is about half that ofdeveloped countries. In Han Chinese, osteoarthritis kneeand low back pains are more common in north China thanin the south and in migrants in Malaysia near the equator[3]. This is paralleled by radiological changes, so it is notsimply explained by increased pain sensitivity to cold.World Health Organization estimates of the burden ofdisease expressed as disability adjusted life years (DALYS)are summarized by Brooks [2]. DALYS are the sum ofdisability years lost due to disability and years of life lostdue to mortality, so DALYS would underestimate therelative burden of low mortality disorders such as RD.Thus, RD deserves a much higher priority than currentlyrecognized by WHO and in many national health plans. RDis the most prevalent category of disease in the BighwanCOPCORD study [4]. This study is unique, as it has beencontinued prospectively for 12 years with sustained effortsto improve the prevention, control, and care of RD.A great deal of information has accumulated in theCOPCORD studies. Though this would have been usedlocally to promote health care for RD, it is now necessaryto take an overview of the data with respect to alldeveloping countries. We have no COPCORD data fromSub-Saharan Africa where the problems are formidable andresources are minimal.There is an increasing opportunity for the prevention ofRD [5, 6]. This will depend mainly on education, whichshould cost less than treatment and rehabilitation.The major question now is how to raise the level ofcontrol of RD in a cost-effective manner, bearing in mindthe limited economic and skill resources of developingcountries. Chronic disabling conditions impair ability toprogress in education and to be efficient in the work forceand require support from fit members of society, as withcare of the aged. This has been demonstrated by economists[7, 8]. They argue that an increase in life expectancy as aresult of exogenous health interventions means that morepeople must share a limited supply of resources. Doublinglife span could mean that double the number would have toshare the limited amount of food with a decrease in health,economic level, and a rise in poverty. Contrary to expect-

The impact of democracy and media freedom on under-5 mortality, 1961–2011

Do democracies produce better health outcomes for children than autocracies? We argue that (1) democratic governments have an incentive to reduce child mortality among low-income families and (2) that media freedom enhances their ability to deliver mortality-reducing resources to the poorest. A panel of 167 countries for the years 1961-2011 is used to test those two theoretical claims. We find that level of democracy is negatively associated with under-5 mortality, and that that negative association is greater in the presence of media freedom. These results are robust to the inclusion of country and year fixed effects, time-varying control variables, and the multiple imputation of missing values.

Sigorta Piyasası Bazlı Tazmin Edici Ücret Belirlenmesi Modeli

Bu calismada iscilerin marjinal verimliliklerini ve iscilerin fayda cinsinden kayiplarinin olcumunu icermeyen tazmin edici ucret farkliliklari teorisinin formule edilmesi amaclanmaktadir. Iscilerin verimlilik ucret talepleri kisilerin kendi kontrolu disindaki faktorlerin etkisi nedeniyle gecersiz hale gelmektedir. Buna ek olarak fayda bazli bir olcut kaynak dagilimindaki var olan esitsizligi yansittigi icin reddedilmektedir. Calismada, bunun yerine tazmin edici ucret farkliliklarinin hic kimsenin kendi calisma kosullari ve tazmin edici ucret bilesimini bir baskasininkine tercih etmemesi anlaminda adil olmasi gerektigi onerilmektedir. Bu anlamda tanimlanan adil tazmin edici ucreti karakterize edebilmek icin her bir sigortalinin hangi isi elde edecegini bilmedigi varsayimsal bir sigorta piyasasi kullanilmistir.