Corruption and Population Health in the European Union Countries-An Institutionalist Perspective.

Even though the European Union (EU) is considered one of the best performers in the world in fighting corruption, the situation changes when the analysis is shifted to the national dimension of its member states, with significant differences concerning the effects of corruption on population health. Using the theory of New Institutional Economics as a complementary tool that provides additional representativeness to this phenomenon, the aim of this paper is to empirically investigate the impact of corruption on population health, considering also other demographic and socio-economic determinants. Using data collected at the EU level registered between 2000-2019, we employ panel date models to validate the ongoing effect of perceived corruption on population health. Our empirical findings fully validate the institutionalist perspective, according to which countries with inclusive institutions better control the anomaly of corruption while benefitting from higher life expectancy and reducing child mortality rates. Conversely, the EU countries with rather extractive institutions suffer in terms of both longevity of population and infant mortality. Our study emphasizes that in tackling corruption pressure on population health, the most effective way is to improve the quality of governance in countries with fragile institutions.

Promoting Good Public Governance and Environmental Support for Sustainable Economic Development.

Good governance promotes the fundamental grounds of participation and democracy in contemporary public administration, whilst institution building and the (in)effectiveness of public administration is linked to economic growth. This synergy brings forth sheer implications on the sustainable economic development. On this composite setting, the paper examines several fundamental credentials of public administration in the European Union (EU) countries, in relation to economic development, but also poverty, research, and development support, as representative socio-economic credentials. The empirical analysis is based on data covering the 1995-2017 lapse of time, processed through three econometric procedures, namely robust regression, structural equation modeling, and Gaussian graphical models. The main results emphasize that there are significant joint implications of public administration on the considered socio-economic dimensions. General government spending and, particularly, the environmental support, have positive implications on the European Union economies, leading to significant increases in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita and downsize in poverty risk (more emphasized in regard to the government expenditures than the environmental protection). Overall, the quality of governance in EU countries requires an additional effort dedicated to leverage good public governance in order to support the long-term economic development.