Corruption, Political Stability and Efficiency of Government Expenditure on Health Care: Evidence fromAsian Countries

Abstract

This research explores the efficiency of government expenditure on health care by Asian countries and the impact of political factors on the efficiency. For Asian countries, it is of great importance for governments to convert economic development to the improvement of residents’ welfare and health condition. Political factors may affect efficiency, and their effects have not been clarified enough, especially in Asia. This research firstly calculates the efficiency score with the Data Envelopment Analysis. After this, we explore the impact of political and other factors and find that the degree of corruption has a negative effect on the efficiency of health care expenditure, while stable political condition and democracy affects the efficiency positively, which suggests that anti-corruption measures, stable political conditions, and democratic system are favorable for the improvement of the efficiency of expenditure on health care of Asian countries.