Growth dynamics and health outcomes are studied in a three period overlapping generations model with public capital. Reproductive agents face a non-zero probability of death in both childhood and adulthood. In addition to working, adults allocate time to their own health and child rearing. Health status in adulthood depends on health in childhood. With partial persistence in health, pure stagnation may occur. With full persistence, a stagnating equilibrium with low growth and high fertility may result from poor access to public capital. With threshold effects in health status, multiple growth regimes may emerge. A reallocation of public spending toward health or infrastructure may shift the economy from a low-growth equilibrium to a high-growth, low-fertility steady state.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.