The preston-curve and the contribution of health to economic well-being: evidence from the DHS of India and four African countries

The objective of this paper is two-fold: (a) to corroborate Preston’s cross-country macro-level findings with the micro-level evidence from the demographic and health surveys (DHS); and (b) to examine, at the within-country regional level, the impact that health improvements may have had on economic well-being. Two cases of empirical findings are presented: one using the DHS data for the states of India, and the other using DHS data for a group of four African countries: Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, and Zimbabwe. For India, the regional level joint evolution of longevity and wealth index produced the Preston curves that resemble the one conventionally produced using cross-country macro-level data. Also, we find positive and elastic impact of life expectancy on economic outcome. The findings are different for the African countries. The Preston curves are flat in most cases, with large downward shifts postulating the existence of significant exogenous shocks for the health conditions. The regression estimates for the African countries show a positive but inelastic impact of the increase in life expectancy on wealth index.