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Life Expectancy and Economic Well-being: A Within-country Regional-level Analysis Using the Micro-data of Bangladesh

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  • Muhammad Jami Husain

    (Muhammad Jami Husain is at Keele Management School, Keele University, Staffordshire, United Kingdom, e-mails: m.j.husain@keele.ac.uk and ecojami@gmail.com)

Abstract

A frequent empirical approach toward examining the impact of health on economic growth has been to focus on data for a cross-section of countries and to regress the income indicator on the health indicator controlling for the initial level of income and for other factors believed to influence steady-state income levels. From the methodological perspective, such a growth regression approach has mainly offered evidence for the relationship between health and income, using cross-country macro-level data. This article contributes to existing empirical research by introducing within-country regional-level analysis using three rounds of the Demographic and Health Surveys of Bangladesh, combined with corresponding geo-referenced global positioning system (GPS) data, to estimate the contribution of life expectancy to economic well-being. The joint evolution of the regional-level longevity and wealth indicator obtained from the micro-data corroborates Preston’s cross-country macro-level findings. Also, the finding that a 1 per cent increase in life expectancy leads to about 3 per cent increase in the wealth index corroborates the findings of several macro-regression studies and promotes the concept of direct investments in health. JEL Classification: I10, O40, R10

Suggested Citation

  • Muhammad Jami Husain, 2013. "Life Expectancy and Economic Well-being: A Within-country Regional-level Analysis Using the Micro-data of Bangladesh," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 7(4), pages 443-474, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:mareco:v:7:y:2013:i:4:p:443-474
    DOI: 10.1177/0973801013500133
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Life Expectancy; Wealth Index; Health; Economic Well-being; Demographic and Health Survey;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General
    • R10 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - General

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