Advancing Empirics and Theory for a Deeper Political Economy Analysis; Comment on “Health Coverage and Financial Protection in Uganda: A Political Economy Perspective”

At its core, political economy analysis involves examination of the relationship between the state and the market. A number of country case studies have emerged in recent years that aim to identify political economy factors facilitating or impeding health sector reforms towards universal coverage. In this commentary, we expand Nannini and colleagues’ analysis to elaborate on how political economy analyses can better inform policy design towards more successful reforms in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) by drawing more heavily on improved research design and theory. We suggest three ways that political economy studies could make deeper claims by historicizing analyses, going comparative and/or by grounding findings more deeply in theory.