Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/64340 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
Upjohn Institute Working Paper No. 10-162
Publisher: 
W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, Kalamazoo, MI
Abstract: 
We reexamine the recent, well-publicized claim that 'rapid mass privatisation [of state-owned enterprises] ... was a crucial determinant of differences in adult mortality trends in postcommunist countries' (Stuckler, King and McKee, 2009). Our analysis shows that the estimated correlation of privatization and mortality in country-level data is not robust to recomputing the mass-privatization measure, to assuming a short lag for economic policies to affect mortality, and to controlling for country-specific mortality trends. Further, in an analysis of the determinants of mortality in Russian regions, we find no evidence that privatization increased mortality during the early 1990s. Finally, we reanalyze the relationship between privatization and unemployment in postcommunist countries, showing that there is little support for the proposed mechanism by which privatization might have increased mortality.
Subjects: 
privatization
mortality
health
shock therapy
unemployment
Eastern Europe
Former Soviet Union
Lancet
JEL: 
I18
L33
P2
P31
O57
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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