The Globalization of Disease: Implications for Human Capital Consolidation and Endogenous Sustainable Development

Andrew Price-Smith and Steve Tauber

This paper provides an empirical analysis of the effects of public health on the educational status of a population, which forms the aggregate stock of endogenous human capital. Employing data from the entire population of nations during the late 1990s, we test the effect of health indicators on educational attainment levels. The data presented indicate that population health generates a significant long-term positive effect on the stock of education and skills within a given society. Our findings suggest that health has a significant and positive association with the development of human capital across the global spectrum of nations. Therefore, we argue that the international community should increasingly target funding towards the provision of basic needs such as health care, the construction of adequate public health infrastructure and nutrition in order to accelerate processes global economic development.