Growth and Enduring Epidemic Diseases

Clive Bell and Hans Gersbach

No 06/57, CER-ETH Economics working paper series from CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich

Abstract: This paper studies the formation of human capital and its transmission across generations when premature adult mortality is a salient feature of the demographic landscape, either permanently or in the form of a long-period wave that follows the outbreak of an epidemic. We establish several threshold properties of the model, for such a shock can severely retard economic growth, even to the point of leading to an economic collapse. Premature adult mortality may exacerbate inequality under nuclear family arrangements. Pooling mortality risks with equal treatment of all children may fend off, or even induce, a collapse, depending on the initial conditions and the size and duration of the shock. Awareness campaigns may also trigger a collapse by introducing undesirable expectational feedbacks.

Keywords: Epidemic Diseases; HIV/AIDS; Growth; Collapse; Pooling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I20 O11 O40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2006-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Growth and enduring epidemic diseases (2013)
Working Paper: Growth and Enduring Epidemic Diseases (2006)
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