Health and development: what can research contribute?

Nancy Birdsall

No 545, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: This survey of the state of research on relations between health and economic development discusses first research on how development affects health and then research on how health affects development. Central assumptions include: (A) Health is produced by households, along with a number of other valued goods, as a function of the resources the household has and the constraints and opportunities it faces; the process of development affects health in part by changing those resources, constraints and opportunities. (B) Development depends in part on investment in human capital; improvement in health of individuals is thus likely to influence the amount and process of development. (C) Both health and other aspects of development are affected by public policies. Public policies are affected by many political, economic and social interests; policies are also and can also be affected by better information and thus by better research.

Keywords: Health Monitoring&Evaluation; Health Systems Development&Reform; Health Economics&Finance; Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems; Housing&Human Habitats (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1990-11-30
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSC ... d/PDF/multi0page.pdf (application/pdf)

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:wbk:wbrwps:545

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20433. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Roula I. Yazigi ().