This book lays out a range of policy actions that are needed at the various phases of the demographic transition and uses global and regional experiences to provide evidence on what has worked and what has not. Countries have a menu of options available to speed up the transition, improve...

Declines in child mortality, followed by declines in fertility, produce a youth bulge generation and a period when a country has a large number of working age people and a smaller number of dependents. If gainfully employed, a large number of workers per capita gives a boost to the economy. The...

We construct a life-cycle model in which retirement occurs at the end of life as a result of declining health. We show that improvements in life expectancy, coupled with a delay in the onset of disability, increases both the optimal consumption level and the proportion of life spent in leisure....

Technological diffusion implies a form of 'conditional convergence' as lagging countries catch up with technological leaders. We find strong evidence of technological diffusion but not full convergence; differences in total factor productivity (TFP) persist even in the long run due to differences...

Selection bias in HIV prevalence estimates occurs if non-participation in testing is correlated with HIV status. Longitudinal data suggests that individuals who know or suspect they are HIV positive are less likely to participate in testing in HIV surveys, in which case methods to correct for...

We investigate trends in cohort infant mortality rates and adult heights in 39 developing countries since 1961. In most regions of the world improved nutrition, and reduced childhood exposure to disease, have lead to improvements in both infant mortality and adult stature. In Sub-Saharan Africa,...

While countries with higher levels of human resources for health typically have better population health, the evidence that increases in the level of human resources for health leads to improvements in population health is limited. We use a dynamic regression model to obtain estimates of both...

We investigate the effects of antenatal 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...