Global Health Institutions: The Case of Cross-National Convergence in Child Polio Vaccination Rates

• In Event: 156 - Section on Global and Transnational Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 06. Health, Medicine, and Global Networks

Abstract

This research examines the role of international nongovernmental health organizations in reducing cross-national health inequalities and the role of national political context in mediating that relationship. Specifically, we test the effect of international nongovernmental organizations dedicated to promoting health, broadly conceived, on rates of child immunization for polio. We then test the moderating effects of national level of democracy and presence of civil war. Prais-Winsten regression models of unbalanced panels indicate that national ties to global health organizations play a critical role in the reduction of cross-national inequality in access to the polio vaccination. Further, we find that the effect of national ties to health INGOs decreases with increased levels of democracy and presence of civil war. As such, these analyses demonstrate the importance of state connectedness to health INGOs, an increasingly salient but underexplored mechanism of reducing global health inequalities as well as the importance of national political context in mediating that relationship.

Authors

• Kristen Shorette, Stony Brook University

• Nolan Phillips, University of California at Irvine