Publication Title: Health and Growth

Pages: 53-76

Abstract: Improvements in health may be as important as improvements in income when thinking about development and human welfare. Although good health is a goal in its own right—independent of its relationship with income—the link between health and income is important for policy purposes. To the extent that health follows income, income growth should be the priority for developing countries. To the extent that income is a consequence of health, investments in health, even in the poorest developing countries, may be a priority. This argument for health as an investment good is particularly relevant because cheap and easily implementable health policies can improve health dramatically even in the poorest countries.