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HEALTH, HUMAN CAPITAL FORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION: TWO CENTURIES OF INTERNATIONAL EVIDENCE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 January 2016

Jakob B. Madsen
Jakob B. Madsen*
Affiliation:
Monash University
*
Address correspondence to: Jakob B. Madsen, Department of Economics, Monash University, 900 Dandenong Rd., Caulfield East, Victoria 3145, Australia; e-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

Recent medical research shows that health is highly influential on learning and the ability to think laterally; however, past economic studies have failed to empirically examine the influence of health on learning, schooling, and ideas production, the main drivers of growth in endogenous growth models. This paper constructs a measure of health-adjusted educational attainment among the working age population based on their health status during the time they obtained their education. Using annual data for 21 OECD countries over the past two centuries, it is shown that health has been highly influential on the quantity and quality of schooling, innovation, and growth.

Keywords

Ideas ProductionLearningSchoolingProductivity Growth
Type
Articles
Information
Macroeconomic Dynamics , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , June 2016 , pp. 909 - 953
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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