Explaining Global Inequities in Measles Vaccination Rates

Abstract

Measles has long plagued human societies. Measles vaccines are highly effective in preventing this disease, but there are striking inequities in vaccination rates between developed and less-developed countries. Scholars have long argued that foreign investment dependence explains global inequities in development outcomes more broadly. The author argues that debt dependence is what matters for such empirical observations. He evaluates his argument using fixed effects panel regression models of 97 less-developed countries from 1990–2019. The empirical evidence supports his argument.