In this chapter, we briefly review the overall system of global health governance and its evolution over the last decade, the emerging challenges it faces, its strengths and weaknesses, and how these strengths and weaknesses affect the system’s ability to address tropical diseases in the future.

The timing and sequencing of fertility transitions and early-life mortality declines in historical Western societies indicates that reductions in sibship (number of siblings) may have contributed to improvements in infant health. Surprisingly however, this demographic relationship has received...

A number of studies have evaluated the effect of a right to health as a mechanism for achieving desirable health outcomes, yet no study has sought institutional conditions that make this mechanism more effective at population level.I hypothesise whether a right to health is only an effective...

This paper provides estimates of the economic impact of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in China and India for the period 2012-2030. Our estimates are derived using WHO’s EPIC model of economic growth, which focuses on the negative effects of NCDs on labor supply and capital accumulation. We...

In this paper we provide new evidence regarding the long-term impact of HIV on fertility and economic development. We develop a theoretical framework where parents optimally allocate their resources between child-rearing and consumption, and incorporate both infant and adult mortality in their...

We examine the joint distribution of levels of income per capita, life expectancy, and years of schooling across countries in 1960 and in 2000. In 1960 countries were clustered in two groups; a rich, highly educated, high longevity “developed” group and a poor, less educated, high mortality,...

Selection bias in HIV prevalence estimates occurs if refusal to test is correlated with HIV status. Interviewer identity is plausibly correlated with consenting to test, but not with HIV status, allowing a Heckman-type correction that produces consistent HIV prevalence estimates. We innovate on...

Developing countries are increasingly aware of the need to design and implement improvements in public systems for providing pensions to the elderly. Such systems may aim to smooth consumption and thus provide reliable income to older people, reduce poverty among the elderly, insure those no...

The world has enjoyed huge improvements in population health during the last half century. But major health problems persist, particularly in tropical countries, which are still struggling with infectious diseases while increasingly having to deal with noncommunicable diseases. Several classic...

The demographic dividend – the one-time economic bonus that can arise, if conditions are right, from a decline in fertility rates – could matter a lot for Sub-Saharan Africa. Rapid population growth will doubtless bring great challenges, but lower fertility rates could usher in a higher...