Bad governance and poor children: a comparative analysis of government efficiency and severe child deprivation in 68 low- and middle-income countries

Research on democratization and quality of government (QoG) has highlighted the impact of poor governance on people’s living conditions. Simultaneously we have gained knowledge about global child poverty. Here these two strands of research are brought together. We use survey micro-data from 68 low- and middle-income countries (N = 2,120,734) measuring deprivation of seven basic human needs (safe water, food, sanitation, shelter, education, health care, and information) among children. We show that QoG affected four of the deprivation indicators. In contrast, democratization appears to have no impact on the extent of child deprivation.