The causes and consequences of the demographic transition are considered in light of the recent book by Dyson (2010) on demography and development. In the last 50 years the world has seen an exogenous decline in mortality that generated a decline in fertility and an increase in urbanization that...

We investigate the effects of ante-natal maternal vaccination against tetanus on the schooling attained by children in Bangladesh. Maternal vaccination prevents the child from acquiring tetanus at birth through blood infection and substantially reduces infant mortality and may prevent impairment...

We estimate the effect of malaria on settlement and land use patterns in the Brazilian Amazon, where potential settlers were randomly assigned to plots in a newly opened settlement area. The random assignment allows us to estimate the risk of malaria on each plot based only on its...

The Marmot reports have argued that health inequalities are the result of social inequalities. They advocate reducing health inequalities by undertaking fundamental changes that make society fairer. We argue that the focus should be on improving the health and wellbeing of the disadvantaged,...

There is increasing evidence that early childhood health interventions have long term effects on cognitive development, educational achievement, and adult productivity. We examine the effect of measles vaccination on the school enrollment of children in Matlab, Bangladesh. An intensive measles...

By late 2011 there will be more than 7 billion people in the world, with 8 billion in 2025 and 9 billion before 2050. New technologies and institutions, and a lot of hard work have enabled us to avoid widespread Malthusian misery. Global income per capita has increased 150% since 1960, outpacing...

Identifying factors that influence the pace of national economic growth is a time-worn activity of economists. Strangely, demographic change has often been absent from consideration. But new thinking and evidence have highlighted the powerful contribution that demographic change can make to...

We use data from the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey in the Philippines to link vaccination in the first two years of life with later physical and cognitive development in children. We use propensity score matching to estimate the causal effect of vaccination on child development....

Between 2005 and 2050, the share of the population aged 60 and over is projected to increase in nearly every country in the world. Insofar as this shift will tend to lower both labor force participation and savings rates, it raises bona fide concerns about a future slowing of economic growth....

In this paper we analyze the eects of changes in longevity and the pace of technological progress on interest rates, savings behaviour and optimal retirement decisions. In so doing we embed the dynamic optimization problem of choosing a life-cycle consumption path and the retirement age into a...