Health, Lifestyle and Growth

Gianluigi Coppola (glcoppola@unisa.it)

Chapter 1 in Social Exclusion. Short and Long Term Causes and Consequences, 2012, pp 17-34 from AIEL - Associazione Italiana Economisti del Lavoro

Abstract: In this article, I attempt to explain why lifestyle may have a positive impact on economic growth. First, I consider the ways in which health affects a consumer’s utility, and I then define a Health Production Function for which health is the output and consumer good is the input. In this approach, the Lifestyle Return to Scale (LRS) parameter is defined. The first result is that an increase in a consumer’s personal income may have a positive or a negative effect on health. That is, health may be a normal or an inferior good, depending on the Lifestyle Return to Scale value. According to this result, I compute a health multiplier and then modify the Solow Growth Model in which health is labour-augmenting. The result is a model in which the Lifestyle Return to Scale positively affects per capita income and per capita income growth.

Keywords: Health; Lifestyles; Growth. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 O40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Chapter: Health, Lifestyle and Growth (2012)
Working Paper: Health, Lifestyle and Growth (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ail:chapts:05-02

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