Health, Economic Development, and Poverty in Developing Countries

This paper investigates the impact of health on the extent of poverty and on economic development in developing countries. Based on data from the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme and using a sample of seventy-nine developing economies, we find that the fraction of the population below the poverty line is linearly dependent upon the GDP growth rate, the share of income or consumption by the lowest quintile of the population, and male life expectancy at birth used as a proxy for the possible effect of improved health. Using another sample of sixty-two developing countries, we find that purchasing power parity per capita income linearly depends on the total fertility rate, labor force participation, child illness and malnutrition, gross capital formation, and access to natural resources and the global economy as proxied by per capita arable and permanent cropland and by external balance of goods and services as a percentage of GDP. Statistical results of such empirical examination will assist governments in developing countries identify health care areas that need to be improved upon in order to alleviate poverty and foster economic development.