The Health Transition

Question 1

Health & The economy in the US from 1750-present

Answer 1

• Health conditions were not a precondition for modern economic growth
• Health improvements were the largest for the poor. Public health disproportionately benefitted the poor relative to the rich
• Direct GDP affects through productivity, and indirectly through education

Macro theories suggest technological, scientific and nutritional advances are the causes for reducing sickness/mortality, enabled through institutions/applications
Micro theories suggest fertility, institutions, and in-utero malnutrition as fundamental causes to improvements in health
Incentives change for investment in child’s education due to future payoffs, illness, health and knowledge diffusion

Question 2

Determinants of child stunting

Answer 2

4 characteristics of the growth pattern: size at birth, size in adulthood, timing of pubertal growth spurt, speed of maturation
Growth faltering is most prevalent in LMICs, and when malnutrition occurs within first 1000 days of life.

The Indian Enigma
- High stunting rates in India despite strong economic growth & falling fertility. Stunting more driven by nutrition, water, sanitation, hygiene. (Japanese stunting has fallen despite genetic predisposition to be short - this can be overcome).

Catch-up growth
- Observed within a cohort of enslaved children where cohorts caught up to the mean of healthy heights in adulthood despite early stunting