This article analyzes the impact of HIV/AIDS on the global convergence in life expectancy as well as infant and child survival rates by comparing two scenarios. One is based on actual estimated and extrapolated values given the existence of the epidemic (‘AIDS- scenario’). The other is based...

In 1975, Guam stopped testing food workers for foodborne disease. Instead, it taught them how to avoid spreading disease to restaurant patrons. But this new policy did not much cut the rate of foodborne disease among patrons, suggests a statistical study. A major typhoon may have cut the disease...

A number of recent studies have illustrated the link between health and growth (Gallup and Sachs 2000, McCarthy et al. 2000, Bhargava et al. 2000). This paper argues that a key mechanism through which health affects growth is via total factor productivity (TFP). We first estimate TFP based on a...

A woman may choose to become more educated, partly because she wishes to emulate those around her. A behavioral model suggests that she is less likely to lose her baby than the less educated by flouting basic rules of health. Estimates of a three-equation model suggest that low-weight births are...

The number of severe cases of cholera may rise linearly with the number of mild cases. [JEL I12]