Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-fr72s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-22T13:58:00.314Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

HEALTH-LED GROWTH SINCE 1800

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2017

Jakob B. Madsen
Jakob B. Madsen*
Affiliation:
Monash University
*
Address correspondence to: Jakob B. Madsen, Department of Economics, Monash University, 900 Dandenong Road, Caulfield East, VIC 3145, Australia; e-mail: Jakob.Madsen@monash.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper argues that the marked reduction in the burden of parasitic and infectious diseases (PID) together with improved nutrition over the past two centuries in today's advanced countries has resulted in markedly improved physiological capital and cognitive skills and, consequently, in productivity advances. Using a unique annual dataset covering the period 1800–2011 for 21 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, it is found that health improvements can account for approximately a third of the productivity advances in the OECD countries since 1865, and that these improvements have been influential for enhancement in education, savings, innovations, life expectancy, and democracy.

Keywords

Great Demographic TransitionPhysiological CapitalIQProductivity Growth
Type
Articles
Information
Macroeconomic Dynamics , Volume 22 , Issue 4 , June 2018 , pp. 961 - 1000
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

Helpful comments and suggestions from Chris Barrett, Francois Bourguignon, James Flynn, Michel Burda, Christos Ioannidis, participants in seminars at the University of Essex, Humboldt University, Deakin University, Copenhagen Business School, NBER East Asian Seminar, Taipei, University of Vienna, University of Wollongong, Monash University, National Chengchi University, and University of Bath, and, particularly, two referees and an associate editor are gratefully acknowledged. Financial support from the Australian Research Council (ARC Discovery Grant nos. DP1093134 and DP110101871) is also acknowledged. Rabiul Islam, Paula Madsen, and Stoja Andric provided excellent research assistance.

References

REFERENCES

Acemoglu, D. and Johnson, S. (2007) Disease and development: The effect of life expectancy on economic growth. Journal of Political Economy 115, 925–985.Google Scholar
Adlington, F. and Humphries, C. (eds.) (1999) Philip's Science and Technology: People, Dates and Events. London: George Philip Limited.Google Scholar
Ager, P., Hansen, C. W. and Jensen, P. S. (2015) Fertility and early-life mortality: Evidence from smallpox vaccination in Sweden, (revised June 2015). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2473514.Google Scholar
Aghion, P. and Howitt, P. (1998) Endogenous Growth Theory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Aghion, P., Howitt, P. and Murtin, F. (2011) The relationship between health and growth: When lucas meets Nelson-Phelps. Review of Economics and Institutions 2, 1–24.Google Scholar
Aksan, A.-M. and Chakraborty, S. (2013) Childhood disease and the precautionary demand for children. Journal of Population Economics 26, 855–885.Google Scholar
Aksan, A.-M. and Chakraborty, S. (2014) Mortality versus morbidity in the demographic transition. European Economic Review 70, 470–492.Google Scholar
Armstrong, G. L., Conn, L. A. and Pinner, R. W. (1999) Trends in infectious disease mortality in the United States during the 20th century. Journal of the American Medical Association 281, 61–66.Google Scholar
Arora, S. (2001) Health, human productivity, and long-term economic growth. The Journal of Economic History 61, 699–749.Google Scholar
Atkins, P. J. (1992) White poison? The social consequences of milk consumption, 1850–1930. Social History of Medicine 5, 207–227.Google Scholar
Barker, D. J. (1990) Fetal and infant origins of adult disease. British Medical Journal 301 (6761), 1111.Google Scholar
Barreca, A. I. (2010) The long-term economic impact of in utero and postnatal exposure to malaria. Journal of Human Resources 45, 865–92.Google Scholar
Black, J. G. (1996) Microbiology, Principles and Applications, 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Bleichrodt, N. and Born, M. (1994) A Meta-analysis of research on iodine and its relationship to cognitive development. In Stanbury, J. B. (ed.), The Damaged Brain of Iodine Deficiency: Cognitive, Behavioral, Neuromotor, and Educative Aspects, pp. 195–200. Elmsford, NY: Cognitive Communications Corporation.Google Scholar
Bloom, D. E., Canning, D. and Fink, G. (2014) Disease and development revisited. Journal of Political Economy 122, 1355–1366.Google Scholar
Brooker, S., Hotez, P. and Bundy, D. (2008) Hookworm-related anemia among pregnant women: A systematic review. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 2, e291.Google Scholar
Case, A. and Paxson, C. (2009) Early life health and cognitive function in old age. American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings 99, 104–109.Google Scholar
Castilho, S. D. and Filho, A. A. Barros (2010) The history of infant nutrition. Journal de Pediatria 86, 179–188.Google Scholar
Cervellati, M. and Sunde, U. (2011) Life expectancy and economic growth: The role of the demographic transition, Journal of Economic Growth 16, 99–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chakraborty, S. (2004) Endogenous lifetime and economic growth. Journal of Economic Theory 116, 119–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Checkley, W., Epstein, L. D., Gilman, R. H., Cabrera, L., and Black, R. E. (2003) Effects of acute diarrhea on linear growth in Peruvian children. American Journal of Epidemiology 157, 166–175.Google Scholar
Clark, G. (2005) The condition of the working class in England, 1209–2004. Journal of Political Economy 113 (6), 1307–1340.Google Scholar
Clay, K., Troesken, W. and Haines, M. R. (2010) Lead, Mortality, and Productivity. NBER working paper No. 16480.Google Scholar
Crimmins, E. M. and Finch, C. E. (2006) Infection, inflammation, height and longevity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States 103, 498–503.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cutler, D., Deaton, A. and Lleras-Muney, A. (2006) The determinants of mortality. Journal of Economic Perspectives 20, 97–120.Google Scholar
Dasgupta, P. (1993) An Inquiry into Well-being and Destitution. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
David, P. A. (1990) The dynamo and the computer: An historical perspective on the modern productivity paradox. American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings 80 (2), 355–361.Google Scholar
Dobson, A. P. and Carper, E. R. (1996) Infectious diseases and human population history. BioScience 46, 115–126.Google Scholar
Doucouliagos, H. and Ulubaşoğlu, M. A. (2008) Democracy and economic growth: A meta-analysis. American Journal of Political Science 52 (1), 61–83.Google Scholar
Engelbrecht, H. J. (1997) International R&D Spillovers, human capital and productivity in the OECD economies: An empirical investigation. European Economic Review 41, 1479–1488.Google Scholar
Flynn, J. R. (1999) IQ gains over time: Toward finding the causes. In Neisser, U. (ed.), The Rising Curve: Long Term Gains in IQ and Related Measures, pp. 25–66. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
Fogel, R. W. (1994) Economic growth, population theory, and physiology: The bearing of long-term processes on the making of economic policy. American Economic Review 84 (3), 369–395.Google Scholar
Fogel, R. W. (2002) Nutrition, Physiological Capital, and Economic Growth. Washington, DC: Pan American Health Organization and International Development Bank. Available at: http://www1.paho.org/English/HDP/HDD/fogel.pdf.Google Scholar
Fogel, R. W. (2003) Secular trends in physiological capital: Implications for equity in health care. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 46 (3), S24–S38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fogel, R. W. (2004) Health, nutrition, and economic growth. Economic Development and Cultural Change 52, 643–658.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fogel, R. W. and Wimmer, L. T. (1992) Early Indicators of Later Work Levels, Disease, and Death. NBER historical working papers no. 0038.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forde, L. E., Detterline, A. J., Ho, K. K., and Wenyuan, C. (2000) Gender-and height-related limits of muscle strength in world weightlifting champions. Journal of Applied Physiology 89, 1061–1064.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galor, O. (2011) Unified Growth Theory. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Galor, O. and Weil, D. N. (2000) Population, technology, and growth: From Malthusian stagnation to the demographic transition and beyond. American Economic Review 90, 806–828.Google Scholar
Grossman, M. (1972) On the concept of health capital and the demand for health. Journal of Political Economy 80, 223–255.Google Scholar
Hansen, C. W. (2014) Cause of death and development in the US. Journal of Development Economics 109, 143–153.Google Scholar
Hansen, C. W. and Lønstrup, L. (2015) The rise in life expectancy and economic growth in the 20th century. The Economic Journal 125, 838–852.Google Scholar
Hansen, C. W. and Strulik, H. (2015) Life Expectancy and Education: Evidence from the Cardiovascular Revolution. Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen discussion paper 15–01.Google Scholar
Harris, B., Floud, R. and Hong, S. C. (2014) Food for Thought: Comparing Estimates of Food Availability in England and Wales, 1700–1914. NBER working papers no. 20177.Google Scholar
Harvey, D. I., Kellard, N. M., Madsen, J. B., and Wohar, M. E. (2010) The Prebisch-Singer hypothesis: Four centuries of evidence. Review of Economics and Statistics 92, 367–377.Google Scholar
Hatton, T. J. (2014) How have Europeans grown so tall? Oxford Economic Papers 66, 349–372.Google Scholar
Holding, P. and Snow, R. (2001) Impact of Plasmodium falciparum malaria on performance and learning: Review of the evidence. American Journal of Tropical Medicine Hygiene 64, 68–75.Google Scholar
Holliday, M. (1986) Body composition and energy needs during growth. In Falkner, F. and Tanner, J. M. (eds.), Human Growth: A Comprehensive Treatise, vol. 2, pp. 101–117. New York, NY: Plenum.Google Scholar
Huldén, L., Huldén, L. and Heliövaara, K. (2005) Endemic malaria: An ‘indoor’ disease in northern Europe. Historical data analysed. Malaria Journal 4, 1–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Iyigun, M. (2005) Geography, demography, and early development. Journal of Population Economics 18, 301–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jantz, R. (2001) Cranial change in Americans: 1850–1975. Journal of Forensic Science 46, 784–787.Google Scholar
Jardim-Botelho, A., Raff, S., Rodgrigues, R., Hoffman, H., Diemert, D., Correa-Oliveira, R., Bethony, J., and Gazzinelli, M. (2008) Hookworm, ascaris lumbricoides infection and polyparasitism associated with poor cognitive performance in Brazilian schoolchildren. Tropical Medicine and International Health 13, 994–1004.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jones, G. (2011) National IQ and national productivity: The hive mind across Asia. Asian Development Review 28, 51–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, G. and Schneider, W. (2006) Intelligence, human capital, and economic growth: A Bayesian averaging of classical estimates (BACE) approach. Journal of Economic Growth 11, 71–93.Google Scholar
Kalemli-Ozcan, S. (2002) Does the mortality decline promote economic growth? Journal of Economic Growth 7, 411–439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knowles, S. and Owen, D. P. (1997) Education and health in an effective-labour empirical growth model. The Economic Record 73 (223), 314–328.Google Scholar
Koley, S., Kaur, N. and Sandhu, J. S. (2009) A study on hand grip strength in female labourers of Jalandhar, Punjab, India. Journal of Life Science 1, 57–62.Google Scholar
Kremer, M. (1993) The O-ring theory of economic development. Quarterly Journal of Economics 108, 551–575.Google Scholar
Lee, K. S. (2007) Infant mortality decline in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: The role of market milk. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 50, 585–602.Google Scholar
Lorentzen, P., McMillan, J. and Wacziarg, R. (2008) Death and development. Journal of Economic Growth 13, 81–124.Google Scholar
Lynn, R. (2009) What has caused the Flynn effect? Secular increases in the development quotients of infants. Intelligence 37, 16–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lynn, R. and Vanhanen, T. (2006) IQ and Global Inequality. Augusta, GA: Washington Summit Publishers.Google Scholar
Maberly, G. F. (1994) Iodine deficiency disorders: Contemporary scientific issues. Journal of Nutrition 124, 1473S–1478S.Google Scholar
Madsen, J. B. (2007) Technology spillover through trade and TFP convergence: 135 years of evidence for the OECD countries. Journal of International Economics 72, 464–480.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Madsen, J. B. (2010) The anatomy of growth in the OECD since 1870. Journal of Monetary Economics 57, 753–767.Google Scholar
Madsen, J. B. (2014) Human capital and the world technology frontier. Review of Economics and Statistics 96 (4), 676–692.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Madsen, J. B. (2016a) Barriers to prosperity: Parasitic diseases, IQ and economic development. World Development 78, 172–187.Google Scholar
Madsen, J. B. (2016b) Health, Human Capital Formation and Knowledge Production: Two Centuries of International Evidence. NBER working paper no. 18461; Macroeconomic Dynamics (2016) 20, 909–953.Google Scholar
Madsen, J. B. and Ang, J. B. (2016) Finance-led growth in the OECD since 1870: How does financial development transmit to growth? Review of Economics and Statistics 98 (3), 552–572.Google Scholar
Marshall, M. G., Gurr, T. and Jaggers, K. (2013) Polity IV project: Polity regime characteristics and transitions, 1800–2009. Dataset. College Park, MD. http://www.systemicpeace.org/polity/polity4.htm.Google Scholar
McCormick, M. C. (1985) The contribution of low birth weight to infant mortality and childhood morbidity. New England Journal of Medicine 312, 82–90.Google Scholar
McClendon, J. F. (1939) Iodine and the Incidence of Goiter. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Miller, A. K. and Corsellis, J. (1977) Evidence for a secular increase in human brain weight during the last century. Annals of Human Biology 4, 253–257.Google Scholar
Murtin, F. and Viarengo, M. (2011) The expansion and convergence of compulsory schooling in western Europe, 1950–2000. Economica 78, 501–522.Google Scholar
Niehaus, M., Moore, S., Patrick, P., Derr, L., Lorntz, B., Lima, A., and Guerrant, R. (2002) Early childhood diarrhea is associated with diminished cognitive function 4 to 7 years later in children in a northeast Brazilian shantytown. American Journal of Tropical Medical Hygiene 66, 590–593.Google Scholar
Papageorgiou, C., Savvides, A. and Zachariadis, M. (2007) International medical technology diffusion. Journal of International Economics 72, 409–427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peretto, P. F. (1998) Technological change and population growth. Journal of Economic Growth 3, 283–311.Google Scholar
Peretto, P. F. (2015) From Smith to Schumpeter: A theory of take-off and convergence to sustained growth. European Economic Review 78, 1–26.Google Scholar
Ramakrishnan, U. and Yip, R. (2002) Experiences and challenges in industrialized countries: Control of iron deficiency in industrialized countries. Journal of Nutrition 132, 820S–824S.Google Scholar
Reidpath, D. D. and Allotey, P. (2003) Infant mortality rate as an indicator of population health. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 57, 344–346.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rindermann, H. (2008) Relevance of education and intelligence for the political development of nations: Democracy, rule of law and political liberty. Intelligence 36, 306–322.Google Scholar
Scrimshaw, N. (1998) Malnutrition, brain development, learning and behavior. Nutrition Research 18, 351–379.Google Scholar
Shih, R. A., Hu, H., Weisskopf, M. G., and Schwartz, B. S. (2007) Cumulative lead dose and cognitive function in adults: A review of studies that measured both blood lead and bone lead. Environmental Health Perspectives 115, 483–492.Google Scholar
Snow, R., Guerra, C., Noor, A., Myint, H., and Hay, S. (2005) The global distribution of clinical episodes of plasmodium falciparum malaria. Nature 434, 214–217.Google Scholar
Soares, R. R. (2005) Mortality reductions, educational attainment, and fertility choice. American Economic Review 95, 580–601.Google Scholar
Troesken, W. (2008) Lead water pipes and infant mortality at the turn of the twentieth century. Journal of Human Resources 43, 553–575.Google Scholar
Vanhanen, T. (2003) Democratization: A Comparative Analysis of 170 Countries. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Waber, D. P., Bryce, C. P., Girard, J. M., Zichlin, M., Fitzmaurice, G. M., and Galler, J. R. (2014) Impaired IQ and academic skills in adults who experienced moderate to severe infantile malnutrition: A 40-year study. Nutritional Neuroscience 17, 58–64.Google Scholar
Watkins, W. and Pollitt, E. (1997) ‘Stupidity or worms’: Do intestinal worms impair mental performance? Psychological Bulletin 121, 171–191.Google Scholar
Weil, D. N. (2007) Accounting for the effect of health on economic growth. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122, 1265–1306.Google Scholar
WHO (2008) The Global Burden of Disease: 2004 Update. Geneva: World Health Organization.Google Scholar
Zhang, J. and Zhang, J. (2005) The effect of life expectancy on fertility, saving, schooling and economic growth: Theory and evidence. Scandinavian Journal of Economics 107, 45–66.Google Scholar