TY  - JOUR
AU  - Madsen,Jakob
TI  - Health, Human Capital Formation and Knowledge Production: Two Centuries of International Evidence
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 18461
PY  - 2012
Y2  - October 2012
DO  - 10.3386/w18461
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18461
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18461.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Jakob B. Madsen
Department of Economics
Monash University
POB 197
Caulfield East  Vic 3145 Australia
E-Mail: jakob.madsen@monash.edu
AB  - Recent medical research shows that health is highly influential for 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 did their education. Using annual data for 21 OECD countries over the past two centuries it is shown that health has been highly influential for the quantity and quality of schooling, innovations and growth.
ER  -