Disease and Development Revisited

Arbeitspapier

Acemoglu and Johnson (2007) present evidence that improvements in population health do not promote economic growth. We show that their result depends critically on the assumption that initial health has no causal effect on subsequent economic growth. We argue that such an effect is likely, primarily because childhood health affects adult productivity. In our augmented model, which includes initial health, the instrumental variable proposed by Acemoglu and Johnson has no significant predictive power for improvements in health and does not identify the effect of contemporaneous improvements in health on economic growth.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 7391

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Health: General ; Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity: General
• Subject: health ; development ; economic growth

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Bloom, David E. ; Canning, David ; Fink, Guenther
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2013

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/80633
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET