Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Grimm, M.
Author-Name-Last: Grimm
Author-Name-First: Michael
Author-Person: pgr74
Title: Does inequality in health impede growth?
Abstract: This paper investigates the effects of inequality in health on economic growth in low and middle income countries. The empirical part of the paper uses an original cross-national panel data set covering 62 low and middle income countries over the period 1985 to 2007. I find a substantial and relatively robust negative effect of health inequality on income levels and income growth controlling for life expectancy, country and time fixed-effects and a large number of other effects that have been shown to matter for growth. The effect also holds if health inequality is instrumented to circumvent a potential problem of reverse causality. Hence, increasing access to health care for the poor can make a substantial contribution to economic growth not only through its effect on life expectancy but also through its effect on reduced health inequality.
Creation-Date: 2010-05-01
File-URL: https://repub.eur.nl/pub/19426/wp501.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
Series: RePEc:ems:euriss
Classification-JEL: I18, I31, O11
Keywords: economic growth, health gradient, health inequality
Handle: RePEc:ems:euriss:19426