Health and economic growth: Reconciling the micro and macro evidence

Beschreibung

Economists use micro-based and macro-based approaches to assess the macroeconomic return to population health. The results of both approaches differ widely, which presents a micro-macro puzzle of the role of health in economic growth. This column resolves this puzzle by showing that the estimated direct effect of health is of similar size in both approaches when holding constant the indirect effects of health that are included in macro-based approaches only. Public health measures, as well as policies that target the indirect effects of health on economic growth, are important levers for fostering economic development.