Death and Development / Peter Lorentzen, John McMillan, Romain Wacziarg.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lorentzen, Peter.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

McMillan, John.

Wacziarg, Romain.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w11620.

NBER working paper series no. w11620

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2005.

Summary:

Analyzing a variety of cross-national and sub-national data, we argue that high adult mortality reduces economic growth by shortening time horizons. Higher adult mortality is associated with increased levels of risky behavior, higher fertility, and lower investment in physical and human capital. Furthermore, the feedback effect from economic prosperity to better health care implies that mortality could be the source of a poverty trap. In our regressions, adult mortality explains almost all of Africa's growth tragedy. Our analysis also underscores grim forecasts of the long-run economic costs of the ongoing AIDS epidemic.

Notes:

Print version record

September 2005.