Eye Disease and Development

Thomas Andersen, Carl-Johan Dalgaard and Pablo Selaya

No 11-22, Discussion Papers from University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics

Abstract: This research advances the hypothesis that cross-country variation in the historical incidence of eye disease has influenced the current global distribution of per capita income. The theory is that pervasive eye disease diminished the incentive to accumulate skills, thereby delaying the fertility transition and the take-off to sustained economic growth. In order to estimate the influence from eye disease incidence empirically, we draw on an important fact from the field of epidemiology: Exposure to solar ultraviolet B radiation (UVB-R) is an underlying determinant of several forms of eye disease; the most important being cataract, which is currently the leading cause of blindness worldwide. Using a satellite-based measure of UVB-R, we document that societies more exposed to UVB-R are poorer and underwent the fertility transition with a significant delay compared to the forerunners. These findings are robust to the inclusion of an extensive set of climate and geography controls. Moreover, using a global data set on economic activity for all terrestrial grid cells we show that the link between UVB-R and economic development survives the inclusion of country fixed effect.

Keywords: Comparative development; eye disease; climate (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I00 O11 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2011-08-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-env and nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kud:kuiedp:1122

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