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This paper reviews the correlations and
potential links between health and economic growth and
summarizes the evidence on the role of government in
improving health status. At the macroeconomic level, the
evidence of an impact of health on growth remains ambiguous
due both to difficulties in measuring health, and to the
methodological challenges of identifying causal links. The
evidence on the micro linkages from health investments to
productivity and income are robust. Progress in life
expectancy over the past two centuries has been spectacular,
fueled by: improved agriculture that has increased food
quantity; knowledge of disease transmission, and effective
public health interventions that have controlled
communicable diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, and
hookworm; and, most recently and importantly, investments in
very young children that pay off in healthier and more
productive adults. Whether public investments in medical
care affect health hinges on the quality of health
institutions. In much of the developing world, factors such
as chronic absenteeism among public providers, poor budget
execution, ineffective management, and virtually no
accountability weaken public efforts. Institutional issues
are central in efforts to enhance public health investments,
which in turn have a direct impact on the population's
welfare and, perhaps over the long term, improvements in
national income.
