“There seems to be a broad consensus that economic growth can definitely lead to
improvement in health. For example, economic growth could lead to increased availability of food; increased earnings which makes health spending more affordable; and also raises demand for good health services. Higher growth could also imply higher public revenue which can translate to higher investment in health infrastructure. Thus, the question that would readily come to mind is whether causality exists in the reverse direction? In other words, does improve
health leads to higher growth? If yes, how important is the contribution of health when one accounts for other potential factors that are empirically known to drive growth? It is therefore likely that causality exist in both directions, though they could be difficult to measure and estimate. Nevertheless, it is evident that there is increasing debate on which direction dominates.”
