Publication: Health and Growth : Commission on Growth and Development
Loading...
Published
2009
ISSN
Date
2012-03-19
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
The commission on growth and development was established in April 2006. It felt that the benefits of growth were not fully appreciated, but also recognized that the causes of growth were not fully understood. Growth is often overlooked and underrated as an instrument for tackling the world's most pressing problems, such as poverty, illiteracy, income inequality, unemployment, and pollution. At the same time, grasp of the sources of growth in developing countries is less definitive than commonly thought even though advice is sometimes given to policy makers in these countries with great confidence, perhaps greater than the state of knowledge will justify. Consequently, the commission's mandate is to 'take stock of the state of theoretical and empirical knowledge on economic growth with a view to drawing implications for policy for the current and next generation of policy makers. Good health improves the capacity to learn and work, which dramatically improves income and welfare at the household level even if the effects at the aggregate level may be harder to discern. The methodological problems in capturing these gains deserve attention and further work. More attention also needs to be paid to upgrading healthcare institutions, as more of the same is neither affordable nor desirable.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Spence, Michael; Lewis, Maureen. 2009. Health and Growth : Commission on Growth and Development. Commission on Growth and Development. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/2633 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Health Investments and Economic Growth : Macroeconomic Evidence and Microeconomic Foundations(2009-03-01)This paper reviews the correlations and potential links between health and economic growth and summarizes the evidence on the role of government in improving health status. At the macroeconomic level, the evidence of an impact of health on growth remains ambiguous due both to difficulties in measuring health, and to the methodological challenges of identifying causal links. The evidence on the micro linkages from health investments to productivity and income are robust. Progress in life expectancy over the past two centuries has been spectacular, fueled by: improved agriculture that has increased food quantity; knowledge of disease transmission, and effective public health interventions that have controlled communicable diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, and hookworm; and, most recently and importantly, investments in very young children that pay off in healthier and more productive adults. Whether public investments in medical care affect health hinges on the quality of health institutions. In much of the developing world, factors such as chronic absenteeism among public providers, poor budget execution, ineffective management, and virtually no accountability weaken public efforts. Institutional issues are central in efforts to enhance public health investments, which in turn have a direct impact on the population's welfare and, perhaps over the long term, improvements in national income.Publication Disease and Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa, Second Edition(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006)Since the publication of the first edition of "Disease and Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa" (report no. 9784 (1991)), many new sources of health and demographic information have become available, including data on trends in HIV infection from antenatal clinic surveillance sites, the first set of African life tables from a growing number of demographic surveillance sites, injury statistics from a small number of injury mortality surveillance registers, and cancer data from cancer registers. Improved methods for estimating the incidence of several other diseases, including tuberculosis, maternal mortality, and chronic diseases, have also improved the reliability of health statistics. Verbal autopsy studies have linked with demographic surveillance sites, adding to our knowledge on changes in the cause-of-death composition in several countries. Notwithstanding these advances in health statistics, a theme that emerges from all the chapters in this volume is that too little is known about trends in the diseases and conditions included here in order to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of programs intended to produce better health outcomes. As we get closer to the 2015 end point of the Millennium Development Goals, reaching the goals will become increasingly challenging. The continued improvement of disease surveillance and other regularly published health information remains as important a priority for African health systems as it was for the first edition.Publication Environmental Health and Child Survival : Epidemiology, Economics, Experiences(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2008)This report complements Repositioning Nutrition as Central to Development by looking at environmental health issues that affect child health broadly, while also exploring the links through malnutrition. This report argues that environmental health interventions are preventive measures that are imperative to improve child survival with sustainable results in the long term. Preventive measures, such as improving environmental conditions are effective in reducing a child's exposure to a disease agent and thereby averting infection. The overall aim of this report is to provide information to decision-makers on the optimal design of policies to help reduce premature deaths and illness in children under five years of age. To protect the health, development, and wellbeing of young children, decision-makers must identify and reduce environmental risk factors by providing appropriate interventions that prevent and diminish exposures. This study is intended to advance the understanding of what those risk factors are, when and how to reduce children's exposure to them, and how to mitigate their consequent health impact.Publication Intensifying the Fight Against Malaria : The World Bank's Booster Program for Malaria Control in Africa(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2009)This document describes the purpose and context of the Booster Program, its first three years of operation and the proposed design of phase two of the program. Phase two seeks to build on the successes of and lessons learned from phase one and to enable the World Bank to play its expected role in scaling up and sustaining malaria control interventions to reach the new ambitious but achievable global goal set by the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership, of eliminating malaria as a major public health problem in Africa by 2015. The Bank has subscribed fully to this agenda, as illustrated by statements made by senior management in several public forums.Publication Public Health Surveillance Toolkit : A Guide for Busy Task Managers(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2002-02)This toolkit draws on the expertise of public health practitioners who have experience with public health surveillance and who have recognized the core role of surveillance in public health. These practitioners have advocated for surveillance programs, supplied innovative ideas, and provided insightful critiques over many years. This toolkit also draws on the experience of Bank staff and technical experts from the PAHO and the CDC who have contributed to Bank missions. The toolkit also makes use of WHO references, primarily those from the WHO s Web site. Part A of this toolkit provides some theoretical concepts, and knowledge about surveillance that has been gained through applying these concepts and the practice of surveillance in developing countries. Part B provides information that will be useful to Task Managers as they prepare loans for strengthening public health surveillance systems. Several World Bank experiences are shared. The focus of part B is on practical aspects of surveillance and on lessons learned.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Continental Drying: A Threat to Our Common Future(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-04)Grounded in new evidence from satellite data, “Continental Drying: A Threat to Our Common Future” presents the first global assessment of freshwater reserves over the past two decades. The findings expose an alarming trend of “continental drying,” a persistent long-term decline in freshwater availability across vast landmasses. Not only are droughts and deluges becoming more unpredictable, but the total amount of freshwater available for use has also significantly declined. Continental drying, driven by global warming, worsening droughts, and unsustainable water and land use, is a silent but accelerating crisis—largely unknown to the public—that reshapes the global water narrative. Continental drying raises profound risks. This report reveals new empirical evidence showing how freshwater depletion leads to major job losses, reduced incomes, wildfires, and biodiversity threats. In the long term, the combined effects of drying and warming could push societies toward a tipping point where damage accelerates rapidly and adaptation becomes increasingly difficult. Against the backdrop of continental drying, global water consumption rose by 25 percent between 2000 and 2019, with about a third of this increase occurring in regions already experiencing drying. Compounding the pressure, a substantial share of water use in drying regions remains inefficient. Continental Drying identifies hot spots where rising demand and declining supply converge and explores where and how water savings can be realized. This report recommends a three-pronged approach to address the crisis: managing demand, augmenting water supply, and improving water allocation. Five cross-cutting levers—strengthening institutions, reforming water tariffs and repurposing subsidies, adopting water accounting, leveraging data and technological innovations, and valuing water in trade—are essential for effective implementation and to attract private investment to finance the approach. Beyond water, addressing trade barriers, investing in education and skills development, and improving access to markets and financial services are critical for strengthening job and livelihood resilience amid a continental drying crisis.Publication Kyrgyz Republic Country Climate and Development Report(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-03)This Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) on the Kyrgyz Republic aims to support the country’s development goals amid a changing climate. The CCDR considers two policy scenarios up to 2050: the business-as-usual (BAU) and high-growth scenarios. As it quantifies the likely impacts of climate change on the Kyrgyz economy between now and 2050, the report highlights key government actions to best prepare for and adapt to climate impacts (referred to as “with adaptation” measures), with a particular focus on the time horizon up to 2030. The CCDR also outlines a path to net zero emissions by 2050 (referred to as “with mitigation” measures, “decarbonization,” or, simply, “net zero 2050”), highlighting associated development co-benefits.Publication Taxes, Spending, and Equity: International Patterns and Lessons for Developing Countries(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-17)Taxes and public spending underpin the basic administration of government and finance the human capital and infrastructure investments needed for economic growth. They can also have a significant and immediate impact on poverty and inequality. The question of how public finance can support longer-term growth objectives while promoting equity has become even more important in recent years, given the high fiscal deficits and debt levels most countries emerged with in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. These included the increasing cost of debt and the need to restart environmentally sustainable growth while helping households address the learning losses and other social scars caused by the pandemic. This paper examines the global evidence on which households pay which taxes and who benefits from what spending, and critically, the net effect on different households across the income distribution. The aim is to identify the patterns and lessons that emerge for designing progressive fiscal policies. A global dataset of 96 countries is assembled, spanning all regions of the world and all national income levels, grounded in the Commitment to Equity (CEQ) approach to fiscal incidence.Publication Direct and Indirect Impacts of Transport Mobility on Access to Jobs: Evidence from South Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-12)Access to jobs is essential for economic growth. In Africa, unemployment rates are notably high. This paper reexamines the relationship between transport mobility and labor market outcomes, with a particular focus on the direct and indirect effects of transport connectivity. As predicted by theory, wages are influenced by the level of commuting deterrence. Generally, higher earnings are associated with longer commute times and/or higher commuting costs. Local accessibility is also important, especially for individuals with time constraints. Both direct and indirect impacts are found to be significant in South Africa, where job accessibility has been challenging since the end of apartheid. For the direct impact, the wage elasticity associated with commuting costs is significant. Returns on commute are particularly high for women. Local accessibility to socioeconomic facilities, such as shops and health services, is also found to have a significant impact, consistent with the concept of mobility of care. To enhance employment, therefore, it is crucial to connect people not only to job locations but also to various socioeconomic points of interest, such as markets and hospitals, in an integrated manner. This integration will enable individuals to spend more time working and commuting longer distances.