Abstract

The objective of this article is to report on the findings of a study that analysed the impact of politics on infant mortality and life expectancy in countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development from 1950 to 1998.
Countries were grouped by political tradition based on the parties that governed in these countries from 1950 to 1998. Infant mortality and life expectancy at birth were the dependent variables. Independent variables were grouped on political power, labour market, welfare state and income inequalities. It is presented a descriptive analysis of all variables by political tradition and also Pearson correlation coefficients between variables in different periods.
The main conclusion of the study is that the duration of pro-redistributive governments is related with the reduction of income inequalities and infant mortality.