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CHILDREN’S HEALTH, HUMAN CAPITAL ACCUMULATION, AND R&D-BASED ECONOMIC GROWTH

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2019

Annarita Baldanzi ,
Alberto Bucci  and
Klaus Prettner
Annarita Baldanzi
Affiliation:
University of Milan and University of Pavia
Alberto Bucci
Affiliation:
University of Milan RCEA (Rimini Center for Economic Analysis) CEIS (University of Rome-‘Tor Vergata’)
Klaus Prettner*
Affiliation:
University of Hohenheim
*
Address correspondence to: Klaus Prettner, Institute of Economics, University of Hohenheim, Schloss, Osthof-West, 70593 Stuttgart, Germany. e-mail: klaus.prettner@uni-hohenheim.de. Phone: +49 711 459 23453
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Abstract

We analyze the effects of children’s health on human capital accumulation and on long-run economic growth. For this purpose, we design an R&D-based growth model in which the stock of human capital of the next generation is determined by parental education and health investments. We show that (i) there is a complementarity between education and health: if parents want to have better educated children, they also raise health investments and vice versa; (ii) parental health investments exert an unambiguously positive effect on long-run economic growth, (iii) faster population growth reduces long-run economic growth. These results are consistent with the empirical evidence for modern economies in the twentieth century.

Keywords

Children’s HealthEducationFertilityLong-run Economic Development
Type
Articles
Information
Macroeconomic Dynamics , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , April 2021 , pp. 651 - 668
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019

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Footnotes

We would like to thank the editor of the special issue Luca Gori, two anonymous referees, Fabio Mariani, and Paul Tscheuschner for valuable comments and suggestions. Klaus Prettner gratefully acknowledges the funding provided by the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Hohenheim within its research focus “Inequality and Economic Policy Analysis” (INEPA). This research did not receive any other grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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