Bruce London

The Political and Economic Determinants of Health Outcomes: A Cross-National Analysis

This article investigates the impact of selected political and economic processes on the well-being of domestic populations within samples of 50 to 84 peripheral and noncore nations. Existing research by Cereseto and Waitzkin on the relative merits of market versus socialist systems for the provision of health and welfare needs of their populations is extended by employing a more complex model than the original study. More specifically, the authors assess the impact on measures of population health and mortality rates of regime ideology, state strength, multinational corporate penetration, and position in the world economy. In general, high levels of democracy and strong left-wing regimes are associated with positive health outcomes, and strong right-wing regimes have populations with lower life expectancies and higher levels of various measures of mortality. These findings support the conclusion that political systems make a difference in health and well-being independent of national (gross national product per capita) and international (investment dependency) economic factors.

Ecologically Unequal Exchange, World Polity, and Biodiversity Loss: A Cross-National Analysis of Threatened Mammals

There have been a few cross-national studies published that examine the determinants of threatened mammal species. However, these studies neglect insights from both ecologically unequal exchange theory and world polity theory. We seek to address this gap in the literature using cross-national data for a sample of 74 nations to construct negative binomial regression models with the number of threatened mammal species as the dependent variable. In doing so, we find substantial support for ecologically unequal exchange theory that flows of primary sector exports from poor to rich nations are associated with higher levels of threatened mammals in poor nations. We also find support for world polity theory that environmental non-governmental organizations are associated with lower levels of threatened mammals in poor nations. We conclude with a discussion of the findings, some policy implications, and possible directions for future research.

Dependence distorted development and fertility trends in noncore nations: a structural analysis of cross-national data.

To evaluate the hypothesis that dependence on developed nations distorts demographic development in less developed countries (LDCs) a researcher used panel regression analysis to study variables from 62 nations. Multinational corporate penetration an estimate of the shares of both a nations capital and its labor that are controlled by developed country based transnational corporations was used as a measure of the level of dependence. The analysis demonstrated that school enrollment was highly correlated with level of development social insurance program history and both family planning effort (FPE) measures. In addition countries that underwent the most economic growth the most concerted FPEs etc. had the most rapid decline in fertility rates. Conversely those with high levels of multinational corporate penetration/dependency experienced either an increase in fertility or a slow decline. For example South Koreas 1965 CBR was 36 below the population mean of 45. In 1984 the CBR dropped to 20 even further below the population mean of 39 a dramatic absolute and relative fertility decline. South Korea also had the highest rate of economic growth and its increase in family planning program effort was dramatic: from no measurable effect in 1972 to the nation with the highest FPE score in 1982. In addition the level of multinational penetration was modest. In conclusion this research supports the view that intranational economic phenomena such as rate of economic growth and concerted FPEs contribute significantly to fertility decline. On the other hand multinational corporate penetration distorts development and impedes fertility reduction.

ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION, ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY, AND OVERURBANIZATION IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD: A QUANTITATIVE, CROSS-NATIONAL ANALYSIS

This is the first quantitative, cross-national study that incorporates predictors designed to test hypotheses linking overurbanization to environmentally induced migration. The study is based on a sample of fifty-eight developing countries using lagged dependent variable panel regression. Our major findings are quite clear with respect to newer ruralpush and urban-pull arguments that developing countries suffering from various forms of environmental degradation are prone to overurbanization. Deforestation exerts a positive and significant effect on overurbanization, whereas environmental sustainability exerts a negative and significant effect on overurbanization. In addition, our results support hypotheses derived from the political modernization perspective that civil society and democratic regimes help to reduce overurbanization, as well as hypotheses suggested by neo-Malthusian theory that high levels of population growth contribute to high levels of overurbanization. We also find support for dependency theory in that transnational economic linkages based on multinational corporations and international lending institutions foster increased overurbanization in the developing world.

World Bank Structural Adjustment, Water, and Sanitation: A Cross-National Analysis of Child Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa

The authors conduct a cross-national analysis that seeks to accomplish two important goals. First, they test dependency theory’s hypotheses that World Bank structural adjustment adversely affects child mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa. Second, they empirically evaluate the effect of access to clean water and basic sanitation on child mortality. In doing so, they use two-way fixed effects regression models to analyze child mortality using data on 31 nations and four time points (1990, 1995, 2000, and 2005). They find substantial support for their first goal relating to dependency theory that when a Sub-Saharan African nation is under a World Bank structural adjustment loan, then it tends to have higher levels of child mortality. They also find support for their second goal concerning the importance of including environmental variables in cross-national research on health. Specifically, they find that higher levels of access to an improved water source and an improved sanitation facility are associated with lower levels of child mortality within Sub-Saharan African nations. The authors conclude by discussing the findings, theoretical implications, methodological implications, policy suggestions, and possible directions for future research.

Debt, Structural Adjustment, and Organic Water Pollution A Cross-National Analysis

This article presents cross-national models examining the determinants of organic water pollution per capita. The authors use lagged dependent variable panel regression models for a sample of 50 poor nations from 1990 to 2000. They find substantial support for dependency theory that debt, structural adjustment, and industrial exports increase water pollution. The authors also find support for world polity theory that international non-governmental organizations decrease water pollution. They conclude with a brief discussion of the findings, some policy implications, and directions for future research.

Educating Girls in the Third World; the Demographic, Basic Needs, and Economic Benefits

This study of developing countries examines the relationships between school enrollments by gender and gender inequality in enrollments and the lagged outcomes of socioeconomic development: crude birth rate life expectancy crude death rate child death rate the infant mortality rate the index of net social progress and the annual average rate of growth in per capita gross national product. This study is based on models developed by Wimberley and London and Williams. Comparisons are made between school enrollment by gender for both primary grades and secondary grades. Comparisons are made from baseline models that measure the effect of education on each dependent variable and control for development. Comparisons of baseline models are made to more fully specified models. 84 equations were constructed. Findings indicate that a larger proportion of total primary and secondary school students enrolled was more strongly related to a subsequent reduction in the crude birth rate than enrollments by gender. The high gender inequality measure of enrollment was related to the smallest fertility declines or even fertility increases. Total enrollments had a strong impact on all of the mortality measures. Girls education had the strongest impact on infant and child mortality. Gender inequalities were related to higher infant and child mortality. The suggestion from multivariate models is that primary school gender inequality had a modest negative effect on economic growth and on basic needs provision and that secondary gender inequality had no impact on economic growth or basic needs provision. Findings support the literature that links improved education for girls with improved demographic social and economic development.

Do Non-Governmental Organizations Impact Health?: A Cross-National Analysis of Infant Mortality

According to world polity theory, international health and women’s non-governmental organizations should improve health in poor nations by providing health, reproductive, and educational services. However, there are suggestions that their effectiveness may be limited by a variety of factors. These factors include their projects being small-scale, ad hoc, or reformist. Further, non-governmental organizations may implement projects that satisfy donor interests rather than a local population’s needs. In order to evaluate these claims, we construct cross-national models of infant morality from 1990 to 2005 for a sample of 74 poor nations. Initially, we find no support for world polity theory claims that health and women’s non-governmental organizations decrease infant mortality. However, we re-specify the models to test a ‘political opportunity structure’ hypothesis that democracy enhances the ability of non-governmental organizations to improve health. We do so by including interaction terms between these two variables and find substantial support for this hypothesis. Specifically, the results suggest that health and women’s non-governmental organizations decrease infant mortality in democratic but not repressive nations.

Ecologically Unequal Exchange and Deforestation: A Cross-National Analysis of Forestry Export Flows

The theory of ecologically unequal exchange suggests that rich nations are able to externalize their resource demands and environmental degradation onto the poor nations of the world through the vertical flow of exports. However, there has been no cross-national research that examines if forestry export flows from poor to rich nations is associated with higher rates of deforestation in poor nations. As such, we seek to address this gap in the literature by constructing cross-national regression models of forest loss from 1990 to 2005 for a sample of 60 poor nations. In doing so, we find substantial support for ecologically unequal exchange theory that poor nations with higher levels of forestry export flows to rich nations tend to have higher rates of deforestation.We also find that a number of other factors are related to deforestation. These include international nongovernmental organizations, democracy, total forestry production, total population growth, rural population growth, and tropical climate. We conclude with a discussion of the findings, theoretical implications, methodological implications, policy suggestions, and possible directions for future research.

Global Capitalism and the Flow of Foreign Direct Investment to Non-Core Nations, 1980-1996: A Quantitative, Cross-National Analysis

This paper updates an earlier quantitative cross-national study (London and Ross 1995) by examining a more recent time period and re-specifying the original model in a number of significant ways. These include the incorporation of measures of (a) International Monetary Fund penetration into non-core nations (demonstrating that IMF conditionality increases the flow of FDI), (b) the presence of “attractive investment opportunities” in nations (to incorporate a predictor suggested by neoclassical economic theory), and (c) an interaction term that points to the multiplicative significance of intranational and international factors. Our findings generally confirm those of the earlier study and produce some significant new results.