Limitations of quantitative research in the study of structural adjustment

Sociologists and, more recently, critical medical anthropologists have been arguing for a refocusing of the analysis of health and health care towards a perspective which considers the broader global political economy. In the context of the debt crisis and IMF/World Bank-inspired structural adjustment policies, the political economy theoretical perspective is becoming even more relevant in the analysis of health underdevelopment in many ‘Third World’ countries. This study focuses on the direct and indirect effects of the Jamaican debt crisis and structural adjustment programmes on health care services and health standards. In this paper it is argued that there are methodological problems using quantitative data when studying the effects of structural adjustment. In addition to providing a limited account of the effects, it is argued that the basic problem is a matter of the availability and reliability of the quantitative data in many ‘Third World’ countries. It is argued that some of these problems could be overcome by the application of qualitative micro-level analysis. This type of methodology is important to ascertain the effects of global processes at the grass roots level and to gain insights into what those working in the health sector are experiencing and what they perceive as the effects, if any, of structural adjustment policies. This has often been missing from the impersonal accounts offered by quantitative research on the subject to date.