Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T00:02:01.538Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

HEALTH CYCLES AND HEALTH TRANSITIONS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 June 2014

Shankha Chakraborty ,
Chris Papageorgiou  and
Fidel Pérez Sebastián
Shankha Chakraborty
Affiliation:
University of Oregon
Chris Papageorgiou
Affiliation:
International Monetary Fund
Fidel Pérez Sebastián*
Affiliation:
Universidad de Alicante and University of Hull
*
Address correspondence to: Fidel Pérez Sebastián, Business School, University of Hull, HU6 7RX, UK; e-mail: fidel.perez.sebastian@gmail.com.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We study the dynamics of poverty and health in a model of endogenous growth and rational health behavior. Population health depends on the prevalence of infectious diseases that can be avoided through costly prevention. The incentive to do so comes from the negative effects of ill health on the quality and quantity of life. The model can generate a poverty trap where infectious diseases cycle between high and low prevalence. These cycles originate from the rationality of preventive behavior in contrast to the predator–prey dynamics of epidemiological models. We calibrate the model to reflect sub-Saharan Africa's recent economic recovery and analyze policy alternatives. Unconditional transfers are found to improve welfare relative to conditional health-based transfers: at low income levels, income growth (quality of life) is valued more than improvements to health (quantity of life).

Keywords

Infectious DiseaseCyclesEconomic EpidemiologyMorbidityMortalityConditional TransfersUnconditional Transfers
Type
Articles
Information
Macroeconomic Dynamics , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , January 2016 , pp. 189 - 213
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abu-Raddad, Laith J., Patnaik, Padmaja, and Kublin, James G. (2006) Dual infection with HIV and malaria fuels the spread of both diseases in sub-Saharan Africa. Science 314, 1603–1606.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Becker, Gary, Philipson, Tomas, and Soares, Rodrigo (2005) The quantity and quality of life and the evolution of world inequality. American Economic Review 95 (1), 277–291.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bhattacharya, Joydeep and Qiao, Xue (2007) Public and private expenditures on health in a growth model. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 31 (8), 2519–2535.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chakraborty, Shankha, Papageorgiou, Chris, and Sebastián, Fidel Pérez (2010) Diseases, infection dynamics and development. Journal of Monetary Economics 57 (7), 859–872.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Currie, Janet and Gahvari, Firouz (2008) Transfers in cash and in-kind: Theory meets the data. Journal of Economic Literature 46 (2), 333–383.Google Scholar
Dasgupta, Partha (1993) An Inquiry into Well-Being and Destitution. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Easterly, William (2009) Can the West save Africa? Journal of Economic Literature 47 (2), 373–447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frenk, Julio, Bobadilla, José Luis, Stern, Claudio, Frejka, Tomas, and Lozano, Rafael (1991) Elements for a theory of the health transition. Health Transition Review 1 (1), 21–38.Google ScholarPubMed
García-Montalvo, José and Reynal-Querol, Marta (2007) Fighting against malaria: Prevent wars while waiting for the “miraculous'' vaccine. Review of Economics and Statistics 89 (1), 165–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geoffard, Pierre-Yves and Philipson, Tomas (1996) Rational epidemics and their public control. International Economic Review 37, 603–624.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goenka, Aditya and Liu, Lin (2010) Infectious diseases and endogenous fluctuations. Economic Theory 50 (1), 125–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goenka, Aditya, Liu, Lin, and Nguyen, Manh-Hung (in press) Infectious diseases and endogenous growth. Journal of Mathematical Economics.Google Scholar
Guvenen, Fatih (2006) Reconciling conflicting evidence on the elasticity of intertemporal substitution: A macroeconomic perspective. Journal of Monetary Economics 53, 1451–1472.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
International Monetary Fund (2013) Regional Economic Report—Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund.Google Scholar
Kiple, Kenneth F. (1993) Diseases in sub-Saharan Africa to 1860. In Kiple, Kenneth F. (ed.), The Cambridge World History of Human Disease, pp. 293–298. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kunitz, Stephen J. (1993) Diseases and the European mortality decline, 1700–1900. In Kiple, Kenneth F. (ed.), The Cambridge World History of Human Disease, pp. 287–293. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyons, Maryinez (1993) Diseases of sub-Saharan Africa since 1860. In Kiple, Kenneth F. (ed.), The Cambridge World History of Human Disease, pp. 298–305. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mishra, Prachi and David Newhouse (2009) Does health aid matter? Journal of Health Economics 28 (4), 855–872.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mookherjee, Dilip (2006) Poverty persistence and design of antipoverty policies. In Banerjee, A.V., Benabou, R., and Mookherjee, D. (eds.), Understanding Poverty, pp. 231–242. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Philipson, Tomas (2000) Economic epidemiology and infectious diseases. In Culyer, A.J. and Newhouse, J.P. (eds.), Handbook of Health Economics, pp. 1761–1799. Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar
Rajaratnam, J., Marcus, J., Levin-Rector, A., Chalupka, A., Wang, H., Dwyer, L., Costa, M., Lopez, A.D., and Murray, C.J.L. (2010) Worldwide mortality in men and women aged 15–59 years from 1970 to 2010: A systematic analysis. The Lancet 375 (9727), 1704–1720.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ranis, Gustav (2012) Another Look at Foreign Aid. Economic Growth Center Discussion Paper 1015, Yale University.Google Scholar
United Nations (2013) UNAIDS Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic. Available at http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/campaigns/globalreport2013.Google Scholar
United Nations Development Program (2005). New York: United Nations.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (WHO) (2002) Global Burden of Disease Estimates 2002. Geneva: World Health Organization.Google Scholar
WHO (2008a) World Health Statistics 2008. Geneva: World Health Organization.Google Scholar
WHO (2008b) Global Burden of Disease Estimates 2008. Geneva: World Health Organization.Google Scholar
Young, Alwyn (2005) The gift of the dying: The tragedy of AIDS and the welfare of future African generations. Quarterly Journal of Economics 120, 243–266.Google Scholar