The Rise in Life Expectancy and Economic Growth in the 20th Century

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Rise in Life Expectancy and Economic Growth in the 20th Century

AU - Hansen, Casper Worm

AU - lønstrup, Lars

PY - 2015/5/1

Y1 - 2015/5/1

N2 - This research exploits conditional exogenous variation in mortality from the diffusion of modern medicine to study the effect of growth in life expectancy on the growth in GDP per capita. The empirical analysis establishes that countries that obtained higher growth rates of life expectancy due to this shock to mortality in the mid-twentieth century experienced lower growth rates of GDP per capita in the second half of the twentieth century. In addition, a negative relationship between initial level of life expectancy and the subsequent growth rate of GDP per capita is found.

AB - This research exploits conditional exogenous variation in mortality from the diffusion of modern medicine to study the effect of growth in life expectancy on the growth in GDP per capita. The empirical analysis establishes that countries that obtained higher growth rates of life expectancy due to this shock to mortality in the mid-twentieth century experienced lower growth rates of GDP per capita in the second half of the twentieth century. In addition, a negative relationship between initial level of life expectancy and the subsequent growth rate of GDP per capita is found.

U2 - 10.1111/ecoj.12261

DO - 10.1111/ecoj.12261

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0013-0133

VL - 125

SP - 838

EP - 852

JO - The Economic Journal

JF - The Economic Journal

IS - 584

ER -