The Impact of Poor Health on Total Factor Productivity

Eric Neumayer () and Matthew A. Cole ()

HEW from EconWPA

Abstract: A number of recent studies have illustrated the link between health and growth (Gallup and Sachs 2000, McCarthy et al. 2000, Bhargava et al. 2000). This paper argues that a key mechanism through which health affects growth is via total factor productivity (TFP). We first estimate TFP based on a production function and then estimate the determinants of TFP, paying particular attention to three indicators of health that are particularly problematic in developing regions: malnutrition, malaria and waterborne diseases. We find the impact of poor health on TFP to be negative, significant, and robust across a wide variety of specifications.

Keywords: Total factor productivity; disease; health; underdevelopment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O47 I12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-edu and nep-hea
Date: 2003-12-24, Revised 2005-03-23
Note: Type of Document -
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Related works:
Journal Article: The impact of poor health on total factor productivity (2006)
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wpa:wuwphe:0312001

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