Health and economic development: Evidence from the introduction of public health care

Strittmatter, Anthony und Sunde, Uwe (2011): Health and economic development: Evidence from the introduction of public health care. IZA Discussion Papers / Forschungsinstitut für Zukunft und Arbeit, Bonn,

Abstract

This paper investigates the causal effect of changes in health on economic development using a long panel of European countries. Identification is based on the particular timing of the introduction of public health care systems in different countries, which is the random outcome of a political process. We document that the introduction of public health care systems had a significant immediate effect on the dynamics of infant mortality and crude death rates. The findings suggest that a reduction in infant mortality or crude death rates exhibited a positive effect on growth in income per capita and increased population growth.

• Item Type: Paper
• Faculties: Economics; Economics > Chairs > Chair for Population Economics
• Subjects: 300 Social sciences > 330 Economics
• Language: English