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Has the Preston Curve Broken Down?

Author

Listed:
  • Georgios Georgiadis

    (Goethe University Frankfurt)

  • José Pineda

    (Human Development Report Office at United Nations Development Programme)

  • Francisco Rodríguez

    (Human Development Report Office at United Nations Development Programme)

Abstract

Three apparently contradictory stylized facts characterize the relationship between per capita incomes and life expectancy: (i) the existence of a strong correlation between the level of life expectancy and the level of per capita income, (ii) the absence of a significant correlation between changes in per capita income and changes in life expectancy, and (iii) the persistence of twin peaks in the distribution of life expectancy, despite their progressive disappearance from the income data. This paper seeks to reconcile these apparently contradictory findings. We argue that a data generating process in which there is a relationship between income and life expectancy for high levels of development but not for low ones can explain these stylized facts, while models that apply a uniform relationship to all countries cannot. We also argue that the slope of the relationship between income and life expectancy is significantly overestimated by standard cross-sectional estimates, with the true slope being much lower for some countries and not statistically significantly different from zero for others. Lastly, we provide evidence from an error-correction model showing that the elasticity of life expectancy to incomes has been declining both for countries at high and low levels of development. We suggest that these results can be interpreted as showing that income matters only for countries that are close enough to the world health technological frontier.

Suggested Citation

  • Georgios Georgiadis & José Pineda & Francisco Rodríguez, 2010. "Has the Preston Curve Broken Down?," Human Development Research Papers (2009 to present) HDRP-2010-32, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
  • Handle: RePEc:hdr:papers:hdrp-2010-32
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    File URL: http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2010/papers/HDRP_2010_32.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. de Walque, Damien, 2007. "How does the impact of an HIV/AIDS information campaign vary with educational attainment? Evidence from rural Uganda," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 686-714, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. David Mayer-Foulkes, 2013. "A Cross-country Causal Panorama of Human Development and Sustainability," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(2), pages 235-251, May.
    2. Prados de la Escosura, Leandro, 2023. "Health, income, and the preston curve: A long view," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    3. Aditya Goenka & Saqib Jafarey & William Pouliot, 2012. "Pollution, Mortality and Optimal Environmental Policy," Discussion Papers 12-05, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    4. Goenka, Aditya & Jafarey, Saqib & Pouliot, William, 2020. "Pollution, mortality and time consistent abatement taxes," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 1-15.
    5. Undp, 2011. "HDR 2011 - Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All," Human Development Report (1990 to present), Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), number hdr2011, September.
    6. David Mayer-Foulkes, 2011. "A Causal Panorama of Cross-Country Human Development," DEGIT Conference Papers c016_049, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Life expectancy; income growth; Preston curve; health determinants; Monte Carlo experiments.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • N30 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - General, International, or Comparative
    • C15 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Statistical Simulation Methods: General

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