TY - JOUR
T1 - The relationship between international trade and non-nutritional health outcomes
T2 - A systematic review of quantitative studies
AU - Burns, Darren K.
AU - Jones, Andrew P.
AU - Suhrcke, Marc
N1 - Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
PY - 2016/3
Y1 - 2016/3
N2 - Markets throughout the world have been reducing barriers to international trade and investment in recent years. The resulting increases in levels of international trade and investment have subsequently generated research interest into the potential population health impact. We present a systematic review of quantitative studies investigating the relationship between international trade, foreign direct investment and non-nutritional health outcomes. Articles were systematically collected from the SCOPUS, PubMed, EconLit and Web of Science databases. Due to the heterogeneous nature of the evidence considered, the 16 included articles were subdivided into individual level data analyses, selected country analyses and international panel analyses. Articles were then quality assessed using a tool developed as part of the project. Nine of the studies were assessed to be high quality, six as medium quality, and one as low quality. The evidence from the quantitative literature suggests that overall, there appears to be a beneficial association between international trade and population health. There was also evidence of the importance of foreign direct investment, yet a lack of research considering the direction of causality. Taken together, quantitative research into the relationship between trade and non-nutritional health indicates trade to be beneficial, yet this body of research is still in its infancy. Future quantitative studies based on this foundation will provide a stronger basis on which to inform relevant national and international institutions about the health consequences of trade policies.
AB - Markets throughout the world have been reducing barriers to international trade and investment in recent years. The resulting increases in levels of international trade and investment have subsequently generated research interest into the potential population health impact. We present a systematic review of quantitative studies investigating the relationship between international trade, foreign direct investment and non-nutritional health outcomes. Articles were systematically collected from the SCOPUS, PubMed, EconLit and Web of Science databases. Due to the heterogeneous nature of the evidence considered, the 16 included articles were subdivided into individual level data analyses, selected country analyses and international panel analyses. Articles were then quality assessed using a tool developed as part of the project. Nine of the studies were assessed to be high quality, six as medium quality, and one as low quality. The evidence from the quantitative literature suggests that overall, there appears to be a beneficial association between international trade and population health. There was also evidence of the importance of foreign direct investment, yet a lack of research considering the direction of causality. Taken together, quantitative research into the relationship between trade and non-nutritional health indicates trade to be beneficial, yet this body of research is still in its infancy. Future quantitative studies based on this foundation will provide a stronger basis on which to inform relevant national and international institutions about the health consequences of trade policies.
KW - Commerce/economics
KW - Global Health
KW - Humans
KW - Internationality
KW - Investments
U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.01.021
DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.01.021
M3 - Review article
C2 - 26820112
SN - 0277-9536
VL - 152
SP - 9
EP - 17
JO - Social Science and Medicine
JF - Social Science and Medicine
ER -