The long-term impact of health on economic growth in Latin America

Growth regressions adapted as Granger-type causality tests give strong evid ence of 30-year causality from health to income in 18 Latin American countr ies. The health indicator is probability of survival by age and gender grou ps for 1950-90. A permanent increment of between 0.8% and 1.5% annual incom e is associated with typical adult and, surprisingly, old age health improv ements. The channels of causation from health to income are diverse and nee d to be identified in microeconomic studies that should, however, include a wide variety long-term phenomena to account for the economic effects of he alth. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.