Influence of political ideology on health expenditures per capita

In this thesis I propose to analyze the influence of political ideology on the health expenditures per capita across 19 OECD countries in the period 1960-1990. So far, Potrafke is the only person who has analyzed the influence of political ideology on health expenditures. He finds that political ideology has no influence on health expenditures (Potrafke, 2010). I use panel data of the OECD health data set, a data set of the World Bank and a data set of Woldendorp. I draw my main conclusions from a log linear model with time and country fixed effects. Governments with a share of seats of rightwing parties between 1/3 – 2/3 and a share of seats of centre parties between 1/3 – 2/3 spend on average more on health expenditures than governments with another political ideology.