Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T17:55:30.894Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Early riser, late bloomer: Contextualizing Turkish health achievements in the last 50 years vis-à-vis China and the global picture of development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2018

İlhan Can Özen
İlhan Can Özen*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Middle East Technical University, 06800, Çankaya, Ankara, Turkey; [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Where does Turkey’s performance in the health dimension of the Preston Curve stand with regard to comparable countries on the development ladder? When one observes the chronological progression of health and wealth values embedded in the Preston Curve for developing countries, one sees a near monotonic increase across the board, with only a very small number of downwardly mobile countries. In the face of this near-universal increase in health and wealth values, it is necessary to adopt a more comparative perspective in order to situate the Turkish state’s choices and performance within the general story playing out for developing countries in the second half of the 20th century. Utilizing just such a comparative framework, this article uses China’s experience between 1960 and 2010 as an alternative through which to understand Turkey’s development experience.

Keywords

Cross-country comparisonsSocioeconomic variablesPublic healthHealth economicsHealth and economic developmentHealth and inequality
Type
Articles
Information
New Perspectives on Turkey , Volume 58 , May 2018 , pp. 35 - 92
Copyright
© New Perspectives on Turkey and Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahmad, Omar B., Lopez, Alan D., and Inoue, Mie. “The Decline in Child Mortality: A Reappraisal.” Bulletin of the World Health Organization 78, no. 10 (2000): 1175–1191.Google ScholarPubMed
Akder, Halis. “Forgotten Campaigns: A History of Disease in Turkey.” In Turkey’s Engagement with Modernity: Conflict and Change in the Twentieth Century . Edited by Celia Kerslake, Kerem Öktem, and Philip Robins. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. 210–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Akdur, Recep. “Türkiye’de Sağlık Örgütlenmesinin Gelişimi.” Toplum ve Hekim 5, no. 28 (1980): 36–43.Google Scholar
Akın, Ayşe. “Türkiye’de Sağlık Hizmetlerinin Sosyalleştirilmesi Uygulamalarından Örnekler, İzlenimler.” In Türkiye’de Sosyalleştirmenin 50 Yılı. Edited by Figen Şahpaz and Eriş Bilaloğlu. Ankara: Türk Tabipler Birliği Yayınları, 2012. 95–104.Google Scholar
Anand, Sudhir and Ravallion, Martin. “Human Development in Poor Countries: On the Role of Private Incomes and Public Services.” The Journal of Economic Perspectives 7, no. 1 (Winter 1993): 133–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atun, Rifat, Aydın, Sabahattin, Chakrabarty, Sarbani, Sümer, Safir, Aran, Meltem, Gurol, İpek, Nazlıoğlu, Serpil, Özgülcü, Şenay, Aydoğan, Ülger, Ayar, Banu, Dilmen, Uğur, and Akdag, Recep. “Universal Health Coverage in Turkey: Enhancement of Equity.” The Lancet 382, no. 9886 (July 6, 2013): 65–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aytekin, A. Hamdi. “Sağlı Hizmetlerinin Sosyalleştirilmesi ve Muş Deneyi.” In Türkiye’de Sosyalleştirmenin 50 Yılı. Edited by Figen Şahpaz and Eriş Bilaloğlu. Ankara: Türk Tabipler Birliği Yayınları, 2012. 79–82.Google Scholar
Banerjee, Abhjit, Deaton, Angus and Duflo, Esther. “Wealth, Health, and Health Services in Rural Rajasthan.” American Economic Review 94, no. 2 (May 2004): 326–330.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Banister, Judith and Zhang, Xiaobo. “China, Economic Development and Mortality Decline.” World Development 33, no. 1 (2005): 21–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartkowska, Monika and Riedl, Aleksandra. “Regional Convergence Clubs in Europe: Identification and Conditioning Factors.” Economic Modelling 29, no. 1 (January 2012): 22–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Besley, Timothy, Gouveia, Miguel, and Drèze, Jacques. “Alternative Systems of Health Care Provision.” Economic Policy 9, no. 19 (October 1994): 199–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloom, David E. and Canning, David. “Commentary: The Preston Curve 30 Years on: Still Sparking Fires.” International Journal of Epidemiology 36, no. 3 (June 2007): 498–499.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloom, Gerald. “Health Sector Reform: Lessons from China.” Social Science & Medicine 45, no. 3 (August 1997): 351–360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloom, Gerald. “Building Institutions for an Effective Health System: Lessons from China’s Experience with Rural Health Reform.” Social Science & Medicine 72, no. 8 (April 2011): 1302–1309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blumenthal, David and Hsiao, William C.. “Globalization and its Discontents: The Evolving Chinese Health Care System.” New England Journal of Medicine 353, no. 11 (September 2005): 1165–1170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buğra, Ayşe and Keyder, Çağlar. “The Turkish Welfare Regime in Transformation.” Journal of European Social Policy 16, no. 3 (2006): 211–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bulut, Ayşen. “Türkiye’de Sağlık Reformunun Tarihçesi.” In Avrupa’da ve Türkiye’de Sağlık Politikaları . Edited by Çağlar Keyder, Nazan Üstündağ, Tuba Ağartan, and Çağrı Yollar. İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2007. 111–124.Google Scholar
Case, Anne and Deaton, Angus. “Health and Wealth among the Poor: India and South Africa Compared.” American Economic Review 95, no. 2 (May 2005): 229–233.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chen, Lincoln and Chen, Ling. “China’s Exceptional Health Transitions: Overcoming the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.” In Medical Transitions in Twentieth Century China. Edited by Bridie Andrews and Mary Brown Bullock. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2014. 26–55.Google Scholar
Chen, Pi-Chao and Tuan, Chi-Hsien. “Primary Health Care in Rural China: Post-1978 Development.” Social Science & Medicine 17, no. 19 (1983): 1411–1417.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chisholm, Dan and Evans, David B.. “Improving Health System Efficiency as a Means of Moving towards Universal Coverage.” World Health Report (2010) Background Paper, No 28. http://www.who.int/healthsystems/topics/financing/healthreport/28UCefficiency.pdf.Google Scholar
Coady, David and Kashiwase, Kenishiro. “Public Health Care Spending: Past Trends.” In The Economics of Public Health Care Reform in Advanced and Emerging Economies. Edited by David Coady, Benedict J. Clements, and Sanjeev Gupta. Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund, 2012.Google Scholar
Cornia, Giovanni Andrea and Menchini, Leonardo. “The Pace and Distribution of Health Improvements during the Last 40 Years: Some Preliminary Results.” Development Studies Working Papers 194 (December 2004). http://www.dagliano.unimi.it/media/WP2004_194.pdf.Google Scholar
Cornia, Giovanni Andrea, Rosignoli, Stefano, and Tiberti, Luca. “Did Globalisation Affect Health Status? A Simulation Exercise.” Journal of International Development 21, no. 8 (November 2009): 1083–1101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cutler, David M., Deaton, Angus, and Lleras-Muney, Adriana. “The Determinants of Mortality.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 20, no. 3 (Summer 2006): 97–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cutler, David M., Lleras-Muney, Adriana, and Vogl, Tom. “Socioeconomic Status and Health: Dimensions and Mechanisms.” In The Oxford Handbook of Health Economics . Edited by Sherry Glied and Peter C. Smith. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. 124–163.Google Scholar
Deaton, Angus. “Policy Implications of the Gradient of Health and Wealth.” Health Affairs 21, no. 2 (March–April 2002): 13–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deaton, Angus. “Health, Inequality, and Economic Development.” Journal of Economic Literature 41, no. 1 (2003): 113–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deaton, Angus. The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Dedeoğlu, Necati. “Bir Yasanın Hikayesi.” Toplum ve Hekim 17, no. 2 (March–April 1994): 59–60.Google Scholar
Dedeoğlu, Necati. “224 Sayılı Yasanın Dünü, Bugünü, Yarını.” In 224 Sayılı Yasada Dün-Bugün-Yarın. Adana: Adana Tabip Odası Yayını, 1997. 70–75.Google Scholar
Dedeoğlu, Necati. “Dünya Sağlık Örgütü, Alma-Ata, Temel Sağlık Bakımı Kavramı ve Sosyalleştirme.” In Türkiye’de Sosyalleştirmenin 50 Yılı. Edited by Figen Şahpaz and Eriş Bilaloğlu. Ankara: Türk Tabipler Birliği Yayınları, 2012. 29–36.Google Scholar
Drèze, Jean, and Sen, Amartya. Hunger and Public Action. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drèze, Jean and Sen, Amartya. An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions. London: Penguin Books, 2013.Google Scholar
Evans, David B., Tandon, Ajay, Murray, Christopher JL, and Lauer, Jeremy A.. “The Comparative Efficiency of National Health Systems in Producing Health: An Analysis of 191 Countries.” GPE Discussion Paper Series No. 29, World Health Organization, 2000. http://www.who.int/healthinfo/paper29.pdf.Google Scholar
Evered, Kyle T. and Evered, Emine Ö.. “Governing Population, Public Health, and Malaria in the Early Turkish Republic.” Journal of Historical Geography 37, no. 4 (October 2011): 470–482.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fişek, Nusret. “Nusret Fişek İle Söyleşi.” In Prof. Dr. Nusret Fişek’in Kitaplaşmamış Yazıları – III. Ankara: Türk Tabipler Birliği Yayınları, 1983.Google Scholar
Güler, Çağatay. “Etimesgut Örneği.” In Türkiye’de Sosyalleştirmenin 50 Yılı. Edited by Figen Şahpaz and Eriş Bilaloğlu. Ankara: Türk Tabipler Birliği Yayınları, 2012. 83–94.Google Scholar
Husain, Muhammad Jami. “Revisiting the Preston Curve: An Analysis of the Joint Evolution of Income and Life Expectancy in the 20th Century.” Working paper, Keele Management School, Keele University, 2011. https://www.keele.ac.uk/media/keeleuniversity/ri/risocsci/docs/economics/workingpapers/LeY_KeeleEconWP_JamiHusain.pdf.Google Scholar
Kalaça, Sibel. “Sağlık Hizmetlerinin Sosyalleştirilmesi Hakkındaki Kanun ve Beş Yıllık Kalkınma Planları.” In Türkiye’de Sosyalleştirmenin 50 Yılı. Edited by Figen Şahpaz and Eriş Bilaloğlu. Ankara: Türk Tabipler Birliği Yayınları, 2012. 65–75.Google Scholar
Kenny, Charles. “What’s Not Converging? East Asia’s Relative Performance in Income, Health, and Education.” Asian Economic Policy Review 3, no. 1 (June 2008): 19–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keyder, Çağlar. “Giriş.” In Avrupa’da ve Türkiye’de Sağlık Politikaları . Edited by Çağlar Keyder, Nazan Üstündağ, Tuba Ağartan, and Çağrı Yollar. İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2007.Google Scholar
Keyder, Çağlar and Üstündağ, Nazan. “Doğu ve Güneydoğu Anadolu’nun Kalkınmasında Sosyal Politikalar.” In Doğu ve Güneydoğu Anadolu’da Sosyal ve Ekonomik Öncelikler. Edited by Ethem Yenigün. İstanbul: TESEV Yayınları, 2006. 90–148.Google Scholar
Krieger, Nancy. Epidemiology and the People’s Health: Theory and Context. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Huazhang, Liu, Kun, Gu, Jianjun, Zhang, Yimin, Qiao, Yun, and Sun, Xiaoming. “The Development and Impact of Primary Health Care in China from 1949 to 2015: A Focused Review.” The International Journal of Health Planning and Management 32, no. 3 (2017): 339–350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ma, Jin, Lu, Mingshan, and Quan, Hude. “From a National, Centrally Planned Health System to a System Based on the Market: Lessons from China.” Health Affairs 27, no. 4 (2008): 937–948.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marmot, Michael. “The Influence of Income on Health: Views of an Epidemiologist.” Health Affairs 21, no. 2 (2002): 31–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mayer-Foulkes, David. “Convergence Clubs in Cross-Country Life Expectancy Dynamics.” World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER) Discussion Paper No. 2001/134 (November 2001). https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/dp2001-134.pdf.Google Scholar
Meng, Qingyue, Zhang, Jian, Yan, Fei, Hoekstra, Edward J., and Zhuo, Jiatong. “One Country, Two Worlds: The Health Disparity in China.” Global Public Health: An International Journal for Research, Policy and Practice 7, no. 2 (2012): 124–136.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Navarro, Vicente, ed. The Political Economy of Social Inequalities: Consequences for Health and Quality of Life. New York: Baywood Publishing Co., 2002.Google Scholar
Navarro, Vicente and Shi, Leiyu. “The Political Context of Social Inequalities and Health.” Social Science & Medicine 52 (2001): 481–491.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). “OECD Health Statistics 2014: How Does Turkey Compare?” Paris: OECD, 2014.Google Scholar
Öniş, Ziya and Şenses, Fikret. “Global Dynamics, Domestic Coalitions and a Reactive State: Major Policy Shifts in Post-war Turkish Economic Development.” Economic Research Center, ERC Working Papers in Economics 07/06 (September 2007). http://www.erc.metu.edu.tr/menu/series07/0706.pdf.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owen, Roger and Şevket, Pamuk. A History of Middle East Economies in the Twentieth Century. London: I.B. Tauris, 1998.Google Scholar
Ökem, Zeynep Güldem and Çakar, Mehmet. “What Have Health Care Reforms Achieved in Turkey? An Appraisal of the ‘Health Transformation Programme’.” Health Policy 119, no. 9 (July 2015): 1153–1163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Öztek, Zafer and Eren, Nevzat. “Sağlık Yönetimi.” In Halk Sağlığı: Temel Bilgiler . Edited by Çağatay Güler and Levent Akın. Ankara: Hacettepe Üniversitesi Yayınları, 2006.Google Scholar
Phillips, Peter C.B. and Sul, Donggyu. “Transition Modeling and Econometric Convergence Tests.” Econometrica: Journal of the Econometric Society 75, no. 6 (November 2007): 1771–1855.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preston, Samuel H. “The Changing Relation between Mortality and Level of Economic Development.” Population Studies: A Journal of Demography 29, no. 2 (July 1975): 231–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pritchett, Lant and Summers, Lawrence H.. “Wealthier is Healthier.” The Journal of Human Resources 31, no. 4 (Autumn 1996): 841–868.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramesh, M. and Wu, Xun. “Health Policy Reform in China: Lessons from Asia.” Social Science & Medicine 68, no. 12 (June 2009): 2256–2262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rechel, Bernd and McKee, Martin. “Health Reform in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union.” The Lancet 374, no. 9696 (October 2009): 1186–1195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reddy, Sanjay G. “Wealthier and Healthier? China’s Recent Health Achievements in Comparative Perspective.” SSRN. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.918623.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reddy, Sanjay G.. “Death in China: Market Reforms and Health.” International Journal of Health Services 38, no. 1 (2008): 125–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rohde, Jon, Cousens, Simon, Chopra, Mickey, Tangcharoensathien, Viroj, Black, Robert, Bhutta, Zulfiqar A., and Lawn, Joy E.. “30 Years after Alma-Ata: Has Primary Health Care Worked in Countries?” The Lancet 372, no. 9642 (September 13, 2008): 950–961.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Semyonov, Moshe, Lewin-Epstein, Noah, and Maskileyson, Dina. “Where Wealth Matters More for Health: The Wealth-Health Gradient in 16 Countries.” Social Science & Medicine 81 (March 2013): 10–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, Amartya. “The Economics of Life and Death.” Scientific American 268, no. 5 (May 1993): 40–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sen, Amartya. Development as Freedom. New York: Knopf Publishing Co., 1999.Google Scholar
Shang, Baoping and Jenkner, Eva. “The Challenge of Health Care Reform in Estonia, Hungary, China, Chile, and Mexico.” In The Economics of Public Health Care Reform in Advanced and Emerging Economies. Edited by Benedict Clements, David Coady, and Sanjeev Gupta. Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund, 2012.Google Scholar
Shi, Leiyu. “Health Care in China: A Rural-Urban Comparison after the Socioeconomic Reforms.” Bulletin of the World Health Organization 71, no. 6 (1993): 723–736.Google Scholar
Shkolnikov, Vladimir M., Andreev, Evgueni M., Leon, David A., McKee, Martin, Meslé, France and Vallin, Jacques. “Mortality Reversal in Russia: The Story So Far.” Hygiea Internationalis: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the History of Public Health 4, no. 1 (December 2004): 29–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soyer, Ata. “Otuz Yıl Önce Tıp Öğrencilerinin Yaptığı Bir Araştırma Nedeni İle ‘Sosyalizasyon ve Doğu’.” Toplum ve Hekim 16, no. 2 (March–April 2001): 130–135.Google Scholar
Şenses, Fikret. Neoliberal Küreselleşme Kalkınma İçin Bir Fırsat mı, Engel mi?” Economic Research Center, ERC Working Paper in Economic 04/09 (August 2004). http://www.erc.metu.edu/menu/series04/0409.pdf.Google Scholar
Tandon, Ajay, Zhuang, Juzhong and Chatterji, Somnath. “Inclusiveness of Economic Growth in the People’s Republic of China: What Do Population Health Outcomes Tell Us?” Asian Development Review 23, no. 2 (December 2006): 53–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tansel, Aysıt. “Health System of Turkey.” In World Health Systems: Challenges and Perspectives. Edited by Bruce J. Fried and Laura M. Gaydos. Chicago: Health Administration Press, 2012): 381–407.Google Scholar
Taymaz, Erol and Voyvoda, Ebru. “Marching to the Beat of a Late Drummer: Turkey’s Experience of Neoliberal Industrialization since 1980.” New Perspectives on Turkey 47 (Fall 2012): 83–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tezcan, Sabahat and Aslan, Dilek. “Mortality Trends and Causes in Turkey between 1960–2000.” Paper presented at the 16th World Congress of Epidemiology, Montréal, August 18–22, 2002.Google Scholar
Üner, Ragıp and Fişek, Nusret. Sağlık Hizmetlerinin Sosyalleştirilmesi ve Uygulama Plânı Üzerinde Çalışmalar. Ankara: Sağlık ve Sosyal Yardım Bakanlığı Yayınları, 1961.Google Scholar
Wagstaff, Adam. “Socioeconomic Inequalities in Child Mortality: Comparisons across Nine Developing Countries.” Bulletin of the World Health Organization 78, no. 1 (2000): 19–29.Google ScholarPubMed
Wagstaff, Adam, Lindelow, Magnus, Gao, Jun, Xu, Ling, and Juncheng, Qian. “Extending Health Insurance to the Rural Population: An Impact Evaluation of China’s New Cooperative Medical Scheme.” Journal of Health Economics 28, no. 1 (January 2009): 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Bank. “China 2020: Financing Health Care”. Washington, DC: World Bank Publications, 1997.Google Scholar
Yenimahalleli Yaşar, Gülbiye. “Türkiye’de Sağlık Güvencesi: Neredeyiz?” In Türkiye’de Sağlık Siyaset ve Piyasa. Edited by Gülbiye Yenimahalleli Yaşar, Asuman Göksel, and Ömür Birler. Ankara: NotaBene Yayınları, 2015. 85–124.Google Scholar
Yip, Ka-che. “Disease, Society, and the State: Malaria and Health Care in Mainland China.” In Disease, Colonialism, and the State: Malaria in Modern East Asian History . Edited by Ka-che Yip. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2009. 103–120.Google Scholar
Yip, Winnie and Hsiao, William C.. “The Chinese Health System at a Crossroads.” Health Affairs 27, no. 2 (March–April 2008): 460–468.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yu, Xinzhong. “Epidemics and Public Health in Twentieth-Century China.” In Medical Transitions in Twentieth Century China. Edited by Bridie Andrews and Mary Brown Bullock. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2014. 126–155.Google Scholar
Zhang, Daqing and Unschuld, Paul U.. “China’s Barefoot Doctor: Past, Present, and Future.” The Lancet 372, no. 9653 (November 29, 2008): 1865–1867.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, Xiaobo and Kanbur, Ravi. “Spatial Inequality in Education and Health Care in China.” China Economic Review 16, no. 2 (2005): 189–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar