Life Expectancy and Economic Well-being: A Within-country Regional-level Analysis Using the Micro-data of Bangladesh

Muhammad Jami Husain
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Muhammad Jami Husain: Muhammad Jami Husain is at Keele Management School, Keele University, Staffordshire, United Kingdom, e-mails: m.j.husain@keele.ac.uk and ecojami@gmail.com

Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, 2013, vol. 7, issue 4, 443-474

Abstract: A frequent empirical approach toward examining the impact of health on economic growth has been to focus on data for a cross-section of countries and to regress the income indicator on the health indicator controlling for the initial level of income and for other factors believed to influence steady-state income levels. From the methodological perspective, such a growth regression approach has mainly offered evidence for the relationship between health and income, using cross-country macro-level data. This article contributes to existing empirical research by introducing within-country regional-level analysis using three rounds of the Demographic and Health Surveys of Bangladesh, combined with corresponding geo-referenced global positioning system (GPS) data, to estimate the contribution of life expectancy to economic well-being. The joint evolution of the regional-level longevity and wealth indicator obtained from the micro-data corroborates Preston’s cross-country macro-level findings. Also, the finding that a 1 per cent increase in life expectancy leads to about 3 per cent increase in the wealth index corroborates the findings of several macro-regression studies and promotes the concept of direct investments in health. JEL Classification: I10, O40, R10

Keywords: Life Expectancy; Wealth Index; Health; Economic Well-being; Demographic and Health Survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:mareco:v:7:y:2013:i:4:p:443-474

DOI: 10.1177/0973801013500133

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