Measuring Poverty/Health: A Cautionary Note

Economists use various measures to account for the affect of poverty, welfare or health on economic growth but there is a lack of understanding of the movement of such variables over time and whether countries experiences similar trends. This paper presents an analysis of life expectancy across Africa and the Middle East and identifies trends that can be clustered in experience, although a convergence in experience appears prominent. The statistical analysis is repeated for fertility, GNP and mortality rates but we find there is no guarantee that countries will experience similar experiences across these measures.