WEALTHIER IS HEALTHIER

We estimate the effect of income on health using cross-country, time-s eries data on health (infant and child mortality and life expectancy) and income per capita, We use instrumental variables estimates using e xogenous determinants of income growth to identify the pure income eff ect on health, isolated from reverse causation or incidental associati on, The long-run income elasticity of infant and child mortality in de veloping countries lies between -0.2 and -0.4. Using these estimates, we calculate that over a half a million child deaths in the developing world in 1990 alone can be attributed to the poor economic performanc e in the 1980s.