The Best Things in Life are (Nearly) Free: Technology, Knowledge and Global Health - Working Paper 252

Charles Kenny
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Charles Kenny

No 252, Working Papers from Center for Global Development

Abstract: The health of the world’s population—including those in the poorest countries—has improved more in the past 100 years than ever before. The improvement is largely a result of the development and spread of cheap, effective technologies (such as vaccines). Other factors, such as national wealth and institutional development, appear to be secondary, suggesting that exogenous models of development may still be relevant in explain gains in global health. In this paper, background to Kenny’s book Getting Better, the authors investigate the cross-country determinants of health improvements and describe the implications for development policy. In short, improving health need not be expensive. Even very poor countries can make great strides with good technologies and good delivery, but it may take time. Historical trends suggest we should not expect too much too quickly.

Keywords: health; technology; institutions; income (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2011-05
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cgdev.org/content/publications/detail/1425144

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cgd:wpaper:252

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Center for Global Development Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Publications Manager ().