Health and economic growth: a theoretical and empirical analysis

PABLO DANIEL MONTERUBBIANESI

Barcelona

Seminario; Seminario Centro de Invesigación en Economía y Salud (CRES); 2013

Centro de Investigación en Economía y Salud (CRES), Universidad Pompeu Fabra

In recent years, the role played by health as a determinant of growth has been gaining prominence in economic analysis (López Casanovas, Rivera y Currais, 2005). The approach to this problem was made both from a theoretical and empirical perspective. The theoretical approach is based on the theory of economic growth, expanding some of the existing models to incorporate health as a determinant of economic growth. From the empirical point of view, the main contributions were based on econometric analysis. In this context, it is possible to identify two methodologies to address this problem. First, growth accounting, that is, models that measure how each factor of production (which can include the health status) contributes to economic growth. Furthermore, the method commonly known as "a la Barro" consists in regressing the growth rate over a wide range of variables of interest, thus making it possible to include between them any health indicator. The aim of this study is to deepen each of the research lines proposed in the literature. On one side, we construct a theoretical endogenous growth model that captures the different channels of influence of health on economic growth considered in the literature. Furthermore, we apply empirical methodologies to a single common database for a large group of countries, so as to consider whether the results are consistent under both empirical strategies.