Health and Economic Growth:

Findings and Policy Implications

Edited by Guillem López-Casasnovas, Berta Rivera and Luis Currais

Guillem López-Casasnovas is Professor of Economics and Director of the Center of Research in Economics and Health at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona.

Berta Rivera is Associate Professor of Economics at the University A Coruña in Spain and Research Associate at the Center of Research in Economics and Health at Pompeu Fabra University.

Luis Currais is Associate Professor of Economics at the University A Coruña in Spain and Research Associate at the Center of Research in Economics and Health at Pompeu Fabra University.

Contributors

Harold Alderman, Suchit Arora, Jere R. Behrman, David Bloom, Luis Currais, John Hoddinott, Peter Howitt, Dean T. Jamison, Lawrence J. Lau, Guillem López-Casasnovas, David Mayer-Foulkes, Edward Miguel, Olivier Morand, Joan Muysken, Tomas J. Philipson, Berta Rivera, Xavier Sala-i-Martín, T. Paul Schultz, Jaypee Sevilla, Rodrigo R. Soares, Jia Wang, Adriaan van Zon

Contents

Introduction: The Role Health Plays in Economic Growth Guillem López-Casasnovas, Berta Rivera and Luis Currais

Health, Human Capital, and Economic Growth: A Schumpeterian Perspective Peter Howitt

Health as Principal Determinant of Economic Growth Adriaan van Zon and Joan Muysken

Health's Contribution to Economic Growth in an Environment of Partially Endogenous Technical Progress Dean T. Jamison, Lawrence J. Lau and Jia Wang

On the Health-Poverty Trap Xavier Sala-i-Martin

Human Development Traps and Economic Growth David Mayer-Foulkes

Health, Education, and Economic Development Edward Miguel

Nutrition, Malnutrition, and Economic Growth Harold Alderman, Jere R. Behrman and John Hoddinott

On Epidemiologic and Economic Transitions: A Historical View Suchit Arora

Economic Growth, Health, and Longevity in the Very Long Term: Facts and Mechanisms Olivier F. Morand

Productivity, Labor Markets, and Health

Productive Benefits of Health: Evidence from Low-Income Countries T. Paul Schultz

Individual Returns to Health in Brazil: A Quantile Regression Analysis Berta Rivera and Luis Currais

Quantity of Life and the Welfare Costs of AIDS

The Economic Cost of AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Reassessment Tomas J. Philipson and Rodrigo R. Soares

 

Scope

While human capital is a clear determinant of economic growth, only recently has health's role in this process become a focus of serious academic inquiry. By marrying the separate fields of health economics and growth theory, this groundbreaking book explores the explicit mechanisms by which a population's individual and collective health status affects a nation's economic development and performance. International leaders from both fields have contributed original essays that employ theoretical and empirical perspectives on the relationship between health and economic growth, including the relevant interconnections with investment in education, family planning, and productivity.

Each of the book's five sections deals with a different aspect of this dynamic. These include the channels through which health human capital generates both higher income and individual well-being; the impact of health on long-run development, economic growth, and poverty reduction; the link between human capital levels and fertility and mortality rates, with models that analyze demographic and epidemiological transitions; the quantitative effect of better health on labor productivity and wages; and, finally, the devastating effects of AIDS -- in underdeveloped countries the most deadly, most economically adverse, and the surest barrier to growth -- on individual well-being and populations, and the prospects for incentives for developing new treatments. A concluding chapter integrates the different microeconomic and macrodynamic analyses and draws some policy conclusions for future study.