The Political Economy of Health in Low and Middle Income Countries

GHP 212 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

This seminar examines how political economy influences the health outcomes and the performance of health systems, with a focus on developing countries. The course begins with a review of several key theories and concepts in political economy, focusing on the strategic interactions between politics and economics in health systems. We examine concepts such as "path dependency" to help understand why some policies and institutions are difficult to change; how political institutions like the type of regime (i.e. degree of democracy or authoritarianism) structure political participation and influence health reforms; and how variation in "state capacity" shapes the ability of countries to implement complex reforms. We show how these theories and concepts can be applied to explain past events and how by taking into account political and economic constraints, they can be used to design more successful programs and health reforms. We review different empirical methods, including quantitative/causal inference and comparative case study methods and use them to test and extend theory. Theories of policy reform are applied to cases such as health sector reform in Brazil, Turkey, Kenya and other countries based on student interests. The course involves a critical review of theories and the empirical academic literature in order to develop a political economy analysis of a health reform in a country selected by each student. The course is open to doctoral and masters students with a basic understanding of the political economy literature on health systems and interest in applied and academic research.