The Great Escape - Health Wealth and the Origins of Inequality

Question 1

Author and Year

Answer 1

Deaton 2013

Question 2

5 observation

Answer 2

1. health proxied by life expectancy has proved over last 60 years
2. inequality in life expectancy between rich and poor has decreased in recent years
3. high income per capita negatively correlated with infant mortality but not causal effect eg. Haiti
4. high infant mortality in low income countries and vice versa
5. as poor countries develop have high population growth

Question 3

wha are WHO childhood disease examples and how many die each year?

Answer 3

8 million per annum, polio, whooping cough and measle

Question 4

Why is there hope for lowering mortality rates in developing economies?

Answer 4

diseases that kill developing economies used to kill developed economies
health innovations with huge impacts already exist

Question 5

Conclusions

Answer 5

1. poverty is not ONLY reason for high infant mortality
2. supply side reasons for lack of health care
3. other reasons include government, mothers education etc.

Question 6

what are supply side reasons for lack of healthcare?

Answer 6

1. lack of spending on preventative care
2. lack of quality in physician - patient healthcare
3. lack of regulation

Question 7

Solutions to improve health proxied by infant mortality

Answer 7

Education - in particular mother’s education as main provider of healthcare
Improvements to public health care - health systems strengthening
Effective regulation