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The Mortality and Morbidity Transitions in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Adult Heights

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Author Info
Yoko Akachi (European University Institute)
David Canning (Harvard School of Public Health)

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Abstract

In most developing countries, rising levels of nutrition and improvements in public health have led to declines in infant mortality and rising adult heights. In Sub-Saharan Africa we see a different pattern. Sub-Saharan Africa has seen large reductions in infant mortality over the last fifty years, but without any increase in protein and energy intake and against a background of stagnant, or declining, adult height. Adult height is a sensitive indicator of the nutrition and morbidity prevailing during the childhood of the cohort and can be taken as a measure of health human capital. Declining infant mortality rates in Sub-Saharan Africa appear to be driven by medical interventions that reduce infant mortality, rather than by broad based improvements in nutrition and public health measures, and may not be reflective of broad based health improvements.

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Paper provided by Program on the Global Demography of Aging in its series PGDA Working Papers with number 3308.

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Date of creation: May 2008
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Handle: RePEc:gdm:wpaper:3308

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Related research
Keywords: mortality; Sub-Saharan; morbidity; heights;

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  1. Robert William Fogel, 1993. "New Sources and New Techniques for the Study of Secular Trends in Nutritional Status, Health, Mortality, and the Process of Aging," NBER Historical Working Papers 0026, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Yoko Akachi & David Canning, 2007. "The Height of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa: the Role of Health, Nutrition, and Income in Childhood," PGDA Working Papers 2207, Program on the Global Demography of Aging. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Gauri Kartini Shastry & David N. Weil, 2003. "How Much of Cross-Country Income Variation is Explained by Health?," Working Papers 2003-08, Brown University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  6. Misselhorn, Mark & Harttgen, Kenneth, 2006. "A Multilevel Approach to Explain Child Mortality and Undernutrition in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Berlin 2006 20, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  7. Gary S. Becker & Tomas J. Philipson & Rodrigo R. Soares, 2005. "The Quantity and Quality of Life and the Evolution of World Inequality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(1), pages 277-291, March. [Downloadable!]
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  8. Bos, Eduard & Vu, My T. & Stephens, Patience W., 1992. "Sources of World Bank estimates of current mortality rates," Policy Research Working Paper Series 851, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  9. Schultz, T. Paul, 2005. "Productive Benefits of Health: Evidence from Low-Income Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 1482, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  10. T. Paul Schultz, 2002. "Wage Gains Associated with Height as a Form of Health Human Capital," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(2), pages 349-353, May. [Downloadable!]
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  11. David N. Weil, 2007. "Accounting for The Effect of Health on Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 122(3), pages 1265-1306, 08. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. John Komlos & Benjamin E. Lauderdale, 2007. "Underperformance in Affluence: The Remarkable Relative Decline in U.S. Heights in the Second Half of the 20th Century," Social Science Quarterly, The Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 88(2), pages 283-305. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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